•  '• ' ;  ••  > 


HIDALGO 

AND 

HOME  LIFE  AT 
WEST  LAWN 


BY 

R.  A.  McCRACKEN 


CHICAGO: 
M.  A.  DONOHUE  &-  COMPANY 

407-429   DEARBORN   STREET 


Copyright  1904 
BY  R.  A.  McCKACKEN 


X*f  •  ft ' '  -  *  •  svt^v&^t 
? 


STORIES  AND  INCIDENTS. 

PAGE. 

Hidalgo 13 

Lesson  of  Cheerful  Obedience 10 

Howard,  Ruth  and  Wendell 19 

Description  of  Prairie  Country 20 

Camping  at  the  Arch 24 

Hidalgo  Turned  Loose 39 

Upset  with  the  Cart 43 

Howard's  Idea  of  the  Temperance  Question 44 

Stories  Concerning  Ruth 45 

Stories  Concerning  Wendell 46 

The  Story  of  the  Pearl 46 

Playing  Marbles  for  Keeps 47 

Hidalgo's  Accomplishments 55 

Sancho  and  Ponto • 56 

The  Wolf  Hunt 57 

The  Deer,  Coon  and  other  Pets 59 

Sand  Hill  Cranes 62 

Hidalgo  Trained  to  Trot 64 

What  Hildago  Likes  to  Eat  65 

Lesson  Concerning  the  Use  of  Money 66 

Driving  Trip  Through  Indiana 69 

The  Snake  in  the  Bird's  Nest 70 

The  Dredge  Ditcher 73 

Trip  to  Wenona  and  Starved  Rock 83 

Trip  to  La  Fayette,  Monon  and  Winnamac  . .  .' 101 

Battle  of  Tippecanoe 102 

Wading  the  Tippecanoe 113 

Horse  Thieves 113 

Explanation  as  to  States,  Counties,  Etc 126 

Ground  Squirrel  Hibernating 132 

5 


Howard's  First  Shot  Gun 138 

How  Papa  Shot  the  Prairie  Chickens 139 

Sleigh  Riding  with  Hidalgo 145 

Rules  for  Grown  People  as  Well  as  Children 146 

The  Dead  Cat  Story 149 

Regular  Duties  for  Children 151 

The  Log  Cabin 153 

The  Camp  Dinner 156 

Indians  in  Our  Back  Yard   160 

West  Lawn  Bird  Protective  Association 163 

Friendship  of  Billy  and  Shep 164 

Wendell's  Experience  with  the  Pulley 175 

Ruth's  Hunting  Trip 176 

Teaching  the  Parts  of  a  Section  of  Land ISO 

Rally  Day  at  Paxton 182 

Stories  Told  in  the  Log  Cabin : 185 

Milwaukee .  195 

Paw  Paw  Lake 201 

The  Furnishing  of  the  Log  Cabin 207 

The  Fire...                                                                         .  214 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE. 

Ready  for  a  Ride Frontispiece. 

Ruth 17 

Wendell  with  Hidalgo .' 21 

The  Arch 25 

The  Wabash  River 27 

The  Bridge  Above  the  Spring 31 

Camp  at  the  Arch 33 

Going  into  Attica 37 

Hidalgo  Turned  Loose 41 

Come,  Hidalgo 49 

The  Box  Tipped  . , .51 

All  Right  Now  "53 

The  Dredge  Ditcher 71 

The  Picnic  at  Wenona. 77 

Uncle  Ruben  and  His  Chickens 79 

Ruth  and  Cousin  Horace 81 

The  Old  Mill 85 

The  Flowing  Well  at  Deer  Park 87 

Starved  Rock  from  a  Distance 89 

Starved  Rock 91 

The  Pulpit 93 

A  Canyon  near  Starved  Rock 95 

A  Canyon  near  the  Rock 97 

A  Canyon  near  Starved  Rock 99 

Tippecanoe  Battle  Ground 103 

Tippecanoe  River 107 

Picnic  Grounds  at  Winnamac Ill 

The  Old  Swimming  Hole  near  Winnamac 115 

Park  at  Winnamac 119 

Bridge  over  Tippecanoe  River 123 

7 


This  is  Where  I  got  a  Fall 127 

Threshing  Oats ' ' 143 

Hidalgo  and  the  Thirteen  Children 147 

The  Camp  Dinner 157 

Show  Day  at  Paxton 161 

Noma  and  Straud  with  Dewey 165 

Ruth  and  Old  Ned 169 

Harry  and  Lileth 173 

Harvesting  at  Uncle  John's  177 

Rally  Day  at  Paxton 183 

Our  New  Church 187 

The  Organ  in  Our  Church 189 

Paw  Paw  Lake 197 

Cottages  at  Paw  Paw  Lake 199 

Paw  Paw  River 203 

Old  Bridge  over  Paw  Paw  River 205 

Sailing  on  Paw  Paw  Lake 209 

Looking  across  Paw  Paw  Lake .  211 

Before  the  Fire 215 

After  the  Fire. .  .  .219 


PREFACE. 

This  little  book  is  a  boy's  story  which 
girls  as  well  as  boys  will  enjoy.  Although 
the  boy  who  actually  wrote  the  story  may 
have  passed  many  milestones,  he  is  still  a 
boy  in  his  interests  and  sympathies  and  ex- 
presses himself  as  a  wholesome  boy  would. 

The  tone  of  the  book  is  thoroughly  health- 
ful. The  simple  story  of  a  beautiful  family 
life  is  always  uplifting,  and  the  knowledge 
that  this  is  a  true  story  will  give  it  an  added 
charm  for  some  children.  The  happy  phil- 
osophical way  in  which  difficulties  are  met 
and  overcome,  the  thoughtfulness  of  each 
for  the  others,  the  wise  way  in  which  the 
children  are  taught,  their  kindness  to  ani- 
mals, all  help  to  make  the  book  a  valuable 
and  pleasant  one  to  read  at  home  or  at 
school. 

There  is  much  useful  information  given, 
given  too,  in  a  simple,  sensible  manner.  The 
children  learn  local  geography  as  they  go 
with  this  family  on  their  long  trips;  they 


10  PREFACE 

get  practical  arithmetic  from  the  frequent 
measurements  that  are  given.  Teachers,  too, 
gain  much,  by  noticing,  e.  g.,  how  clear  and 
interesting  is  the  lesson  in  locating  land, 
and  how  easy  it  is  to  show  the  workings  of 
machinery  when  simple  descriptions  and 
good  pictures  are  employed. 

Lessons  in  right  living  abound  through- 
out the  book  yet  there  are  few  sermons.  It 
is  what  the  family  are,  what  they  do  rather 
than  what  they  say  that  gives  the  book  its 
high  moral  tone.  Children,  teachers,  and 
parents  will  be  helped  by  reading  this  sim- 
ple chronicle  of  how  one  family  live. 

LIDA  B.  McMuRRY. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

Hidalgo  and  Home  Life  at  West  Lawn  is 
a  true  story,  and  every  incident  is  within  the 
knowledge  of  Howard  or  myself.  The  parts 
of  the  letter  have  been  sent  to  Cousin  Weir, 
who  lives  in  Chicago,  so  there  is  no  fiction  in 
the  book. 

I  have  taken  upon  myself  the  most  of  the 
burden  of  writing,  subject  to  the  criticisms 
and  suggestions  of  Howard. 

He  wrote  the  story  of  the  Rally  at  Paxton 
and  the  running  broncho  and  this  story  re- 
mains word  for  word  as  first  written. 

I  first  prepared  the  little  book  merely  to 
preserve  the  stories  and  sayings  of  my 
children.  Since  then,  however,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  Mrs.  Lida  B.  McMurry  and  other 
prominent  educators,  I  have  revised  it,  hop- 
ing that  it  may  be  of  use  in  the  home  and  in 
the  school.  R.  A.  MCCRACKEN. 

Paxton,  Illinois. 


n 


PART  I. 

PAXTON,  ILLINOIS,  January  1,  1900. 
Master  Weir  McCracken.  Chicago,  Illinois. 

DEAR  COUSIN  WEIR:— I  am  going  to  write 
a  letter  to  you.  Papa  says  he  will  help  me, 
so  it  may  be  a  pretty  long  letter.  I  will  send 
part  of  it  to  you  each  week,  until  it  is 
finished.  I  thought  of  calling  my  letter 
' '  The  Story  of  Hidalgo, ' '  but  as  it  is  about 
us,  too,  I  will  name  it  ' '  Hidalgo  and  Home 
Life  at  West  Lawn. ' ' . 

Hi-dal'go  is  our  horse.  He  is  a  dark  sorrel 
with  a  white  spot  in  his  forehead.  He  has 
three-  white  feet  with  stockings  to  match. 
When  you  see  his  beautiful  head,  small 
pointed  ears,  and  large  hazel  eyes,  you  will 
say,  "There  is  a  good  kind  horse  that  is 
wide  awake  and  smart."  He  has  good  feet. 
His  legs  are  strong  and  sound.  He  has  a 
smooth  and  well  made  body,  high  shoulders 
and  an  arched  neck.  When  he  walks  or  trots 
he  carries  himself  like  a  soldier.  Hidalgo 
has  a  mustache  almost  like  a  man's  mus- 

13 


14  HIDALGO 

tache.  It  parts  in  the  middle  and  grows 
to  be  quite  long  at  times.  If  lie  did  not  do 
so  much  eating  it  would  stay  long.  They 
say  that  a  mustache  is  a  sign  of  a  good  horse. 
Hidalgo  will  be  eleven  years  old  the  21st 
day  of  April,  1900:  Papa  bought  him  of 
Uncle  Dave  when  he  was  a  year  and  a  half 
old.  Papa  rode  horseback  and  led  Hidalgo 
to  see  how  he  could  travel,  and  he  trotted  so 
fast  and  looked  so  handsome  that  Papa  said, 
"This  is  the  colt  I  want  to  raise  for  my 
family  horse." 


HIDALGO  15 


PART  II. 

Papa  brought  Hidalgo  home  in  the 
spring,  when  he  was  two  years  old,  and  got 
a  man  to  break  him.  We  commenced  to 
drive  him  to  the  top  buggy  that  summer.  He 
has  been  our  driving  horse  ever  since. 

We  call  him  "Hi"  except  when  we  scold 
him,  and  then  we  say  Hidalgo— then  he 
minds,  because  he  knows  we  are  scolding 
him.  But  he  gets  few  scoldings  and  no 
whippings,  because  he  is  so  well  behaved. 
The  man  who  broke  him  did  not  use  the 
whip  and  we  have  not  used  it  except  to 
touch  him  with  it  sometimes  to  hustle  him. 
Hidalgo  is  not  a  lazy  horse.  When  a  horse 
is  traveling  or  working  it  is  not  nearly  so 
hard  on  him  if  he  is  good  natured  and  will- 
ing. Some  horses  are  so  mean  tempered  that 
they  keep  the  driver  cross  all  the  time.  Very 
few  men  will  abuse  a  kind  horse.  The  mean 
tempered  horse  has  to  work  just  the  same. 
Nobody  likes  him  and  he  doesn't  have  a 
good  time  at  all.  Everybody  that  knows  Hi- 


16  HIDALGO 

dalgo  likes  him.  Papa  says  it  is  the  same 
with  us— work  is  easier  and  sooner  done  if 
we  go  about  it  willingly  and  cheerfully. 

When  Papa  began  to  drive  Hidalgo  to  the 
top  buggy  he  thought  it  best  to  use  a  l '  kick- 
ing strap. ' '  This  is  a  strap  placed  over  the 
hips  and  buckled  to  the  shafts  on  each  side. 
It  was  used  on  him  for  some  time.  Mama 
drove  him  often  while  they  used  this  strap 
on  him,  and  the  men  said,  "What !  a  woman 
drive  a  colt  that  has  to  wear  a  kicking  strap  ? 
She  will  get  killed. ' '  Mama  said  that  Hi  did 
not  mean  to  do  any  harm  but  he  might  get 
into  trouble  while  playing.  They  quit  using 
a  kicking  strap  on  him  by  and  by,  but  Hi 
never  quit  playing  in  the  harness,  and  some- 
times when  we  are  driving  him  we  can  see 
his  shoes  shine  when  he  kicks  up'.  Every- 
body thinks  he  is  the  safest  horse  in  town,  if 
he  does  play  in  the  harness. 

When  I  was  a  baby,  Papa  hitched  Hi  to 
the  sleigh  for  the  first  time  and  put  the  bells 
on  him.  Mama  brought  me  out  and  got  into 
the  sleigh.  Papa  said,  "I  did  not  want  you 
and  Howard  yet:  I  intended  driving  Hi  a 
little  to  see  how  he  liked  the  sleigh  and 
bells."  Mama  said,  "0,  Hi  will  behave," 


Ruth. 


17 


HIDALGO  19 

and  he  did;  he  did  not  frighten  at  all.  He 
knows  that  Papa  would  not  do  anything 
wrong  to  him  so  he  never  makes  a  fuss. 

Hidalgo  is  older  than  I  am.  I  was  nine 
years  old  Christmas :  Ruth  was  seven  Christ- 
mas, and  Wendell  was  five  last  May.  Ruth 
said  to  Aunt  Margaret,  "Howard  and  I  are 
Christmas  gifts,  and  Wendell,  he's  a  May 
basket." 

You  would  be  suprised  to  see  how  Wen- 
dell has  grown.  He  is  as  tall  as  Ruth  and 
very  strong.  His  hair  is  getting  darker  till 
it  is  as  brown  as  mine.  His  cheeks  are  as 
rosy  and  smooth  as  a  girl's  but  he  has  some 
birds'  egg  speckles  or  freckles  over  his 
nose.  Ruth  is  big  enough  for  her  age  but 
boys  grow  faster  than  girls  do.  She  is  as 
light  on  her  feet  as  a  kitten  and  she  can  run 
as  fast  as  the  boys  when  we  play  "Tally- 
1-0."  Her  hair  is  golden  brown  now  and 
there  is  plenty  of  it.  We  have  a  picture  of 
her  when  she  was  little.  Ruth  says,  "That 
was  when  I  was  a  bald-headed  baby. ' '  She 
did  not  have  much  hair  at  that  time  and 
what  there  was  of  it  was  light  colored. 
Ruth's  and  Wendell's  eyes  are  blue;  mine 
are  brown  or  hazel.  Wendell  is  heavier  set 


20  HIDALGO 

than  I  am  but  I  have  more  muscle  than  he 
has.  I  suppose  it  is  because  I  am  older  than 
he  is.  I  can  chin  a  pole  twelve  times  and  I 
can  climb  a  rope  better  than  most  of  the 
boys.  We  children  are  all  healthy.  We 
are  out  of  doors  so  much  and  we  take  so 
many  trips  into  the  country  with  Papa 
and  Mama  that  it  keeps  us  well  and 
strong. 

We  live  in  a  prairie  country.  When 
Grandpa  and  his  family  moved  to  this  place 
they  could  ride  in  any  direction  across  the 
prairie.  There  were  no  trees  except  along 
the  creek.  There  are  no  hills  or  hollows  and 
no  rivers  near  us.  You  would  have  to  go 
several  miles  to  find  a  hill  steep  enough  to 
coast  down.  The  land  is  not  level.  It  is 
rolling,  as  we  call  it,  and  stretches  away  in 
all  directions  like  a  great  meadow.  When 
they  made  the  prairie  into  farms  they  set  out 
trees  about  the  houses  and  planted  hedge  for 
fences.  The  trees  are  large  now.  The 
hedge,  or  Osage  Orange,  is  a  tree  that  has 
sharp  thorns  on  it.  They  set  the  young 
hedge  plants  quite  close  together  in  a  row. 
When  the  hedge  grows  up  strong  it  is  trim- 
med even  and  nice  and  it  is  kept  about 


21 


HIDALGO  23 

four  feet  high.  In  the  summer  when  the 
leaves  are  on  the  trees  and  hedges,  and  the 
corn,  oats  and  hay  are  growing  the  country 
looks  very  pretty. 

I  suppose  that  our  prairie  country  would 
look  strange  to  people  who  live  among  the 
hills.  We  like  to  go  where  we  can  see  the 
hills— I  have  never  seen  a  mountain, 
though. 

When  Papa  was  a  little  boy  the  town 
cows  were  allowed  to  run  out  on  the  prairie. 
In  the  evening  the  boys  would  go  out  on 
horseback  to  drive  them  home.  One  even- 
ing the  boys  found  a  prairie  chicken's  nest 
and  stopped  their  horses  to  look  at  it. 
Papa's  horse  whirled  around  and  kicked  at 
the  horse  next  him.  One  foot  hit  the  leg  of 
the  boy  who  was  riding  the  horse  and  hurt 
him  badly. 


24  HIDALGO 


PAET  III. 

When  Hidalgo  was  three  years  old,  Papa 
had  him  trained  on  the  race  track,  to  see  if 
he  could  trot  fast,  but  he  could  not  go  very 
fast  then.  Mama  said,  "He  is  too  good  a 
horse  to  go  on  the  track ; ' '  the  driver  said, 
"He  is  too  good  a  horse  to  drive  to  a  sur- 
rey. ' ' 

That  summer  we  drove  about  sixty-five 
miles  southeast  to  the  "Arch"  and  camped 
out  for  about  a  week.  The  ' '  Arch ' '  is  nearly 
like  a  bridge.  Two  creeks  come  together  just 
before  they  get  to  the  Wabash  River.  This 
makes  a  sharp  point  of  land  or  rock.  The 
water  wore  its  way  through  this  point  of 
rock  from  one  creek  into  the  other.  The 
point  of  rock  looks  like  the  end  of  a  steam- 
boat and  the  "Arch"  looks  like  a  hole 
through  the  boat. 

We  have  about  twenty-five  pictures  that 
were  taken  while  we  were  on  that  trip.  I 
was  very  young  then  but  the  pictures  make 
it  seem  as  if  I  remember  it  all.  There  were 


27 


HIDALGO  29 

eighteen  of  us.  We  had  three  carriages  and 
a  wagon.  Three  boys  rode  in  the  wagon 
which  had  in  it  our  tents  and  the  things  for 
us  to  eat.  We  started  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  drove  fourteen  miles  east  be- 
fore breakfast.  I  have  been  past  there  many 
times  since  and  I  know  the  place  very  well. 
We  started  again  and  drove  until  dinner 
time.  It  was  so  hot  we  did  not  get  along  very 
fast.  We  had  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  to 
drive  after  dinner,  so  we  began  to  hurry. 
A  bridge  was  broken  and  we  had  to  go  out 
of  our  way  to  get  around  it.  The  people 
began  to  tell  us  all  kinds  of  stories  as  to  how 
far  we  were  from  the  "Arch."  One  man 
said  we  had  just  eighteen  miles  to  travel, 
and  after  we  had  traveled  a  long  way  an- 
other man  said  it  was  just  twenty-one  miles, 
and  by  and  by  we  had  fifteen  miles  to  travel, 
but  the  next  man  said  it  was  nineteen  miles 
to  the  "Arch"  and  everybody  told  us  just 
to  follow  the  straight  road,  but  a  "straight 
road,"  in  some  parts  of  Indiana,  is  more 
crooked  than  a  rail  fence.  Everybody  is  kind 
and  obliging  in  Indiana,  though.  We  iiave 
traveled  hundreds  of  miles  in  that  state  and 
no  one  has  ever  said  a  mean  word  to  us  or 


30  HIDALGO 

refused  to  let  us  have  horse  feed  or  to  keep 
us  over  night.  They  are  kind  to  people 
about  them  and  kind  to  strangers.  If  you 
stop  at  the  door  of  either  rich  or  poor,  they 
will  make  you  welcome  and  give  you  the  best 
they  have  and  if  you  get  them  to  take  any 
pay  for  it,  you  will  have  to  leave  the  money 
where  they  will  find  it  after  you  have  gone. 
In  the  evening  just  about  dark  we  came  to 
the  Wabash  Kiver  at  the  ferry,  southeast  of 
West  Lebanon,  Indiana.  Mama  says  that 
where  we  went  through  the  high  horse  weeds 
before  we  crossed  the  river  was  the  most 
lonesome  place  she  ever  saw.  We  drove 
down  the  steep  bank  and  onto  the  ferry  boat. 
The  ferry  boat  is  fastened  to  a  pulley  run- 
ning on  a  big  wire  rope  that  is  stretched 
across  the  river.  By  holding  the  rudder  so 
the  boat  will  not  be  pointing  quite  straight 
across  the  river,  the  running  water  pushes 
it  across.  It  was  so  dark  when  we  got  to 
our  camping  ground  that  the  men  could  not 
set  up  the  tents,  so  we  slept  at  Mr.  Watt's 
house,  and  because  they  did  not  have  beds 
enough  for  all,  they  made  beds  on  the  floor 
for  some  of  us.  Everybody  felt  blue.  No 
one  in  the  crowd  had  ever  been  to  the 


31 


33 


HIDALGO  35 

"Arch"  except  Papa.  He  thought  they 
would  all  be  satisfied  in  the  morning,  and 
they  were.  When  Georgia  got  up  and  went 
out  of  doors  she  came  back,  saying,  ''I  have 
seen  the  big  ditch."  She  had  looked  down 
into  the  stream,  the  banks  of  which  are  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  high  in  some  places. 
In  the  morning  we  crossed  lo  the  point  of  • 
land  between  the  streams,  set  up  our  tents, 
and  sent  after  a  load  of  straw  to  make  our 
beds.  Everybody  was  happy  and  everybody 
was  hungry  and  thirsty  all  the  time.  We 
could  draw  water  out  of  a  spring  from  the 
top  of  a  little  foot  bridge.  We  took  a  drink 
every  time 'we  went  over  the  bridge.  We 
stayed  there  a  week  and  walked  over  the  hills 
and  down  in  the  creek  bottoms  which  only 
had  a  little  water  in  them.  We  fished  in  the 
Wabash  River  and  rowed  boats  and  took 
carriage  drives  through  the  country.  When 
we  started  for  home  we  drove  east  through 
a  little  town  called  Rob  Roy,  and  north 
through  Attica,  Indiana,  and  stopped  for 
dinner  at  the  Indiana  Mineral  Springs. 
Sick  folks  go  to  these  springs  to  drink  the 
water  and  take  mud  baths.  At  night  we 
camped  southeast  of  Boswell,  Indiana.  A 


36  HIDALGO 

man  kindly  told  us  to  drive  in  to  his  timber 
lot,  in  which  was  a  straw  stack.  Here  we 
filled  our  bed  ticks  with  straw.  He  showed 
us  plenty  of  wood  already  cut  and. told  us  to 
use  all  we  wanted  for  our  camp  fire.  Mama 
went  into  the  house  and  baked  biscuits,  be- 
cause we  did  not  have  enough  bread.  After 
supper  we  sat  around  the  bright  camp  fire 
and  told  stories  and  sang  songs  until  it  was 
late.  The  next  day  we  camped  in  the 
Hoopeston  fair  grounds  for  dinner  and  by 
4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  were  home. 
The  weather  had  been  pleasant  and  every- 
body had  enjoyed  the  trip. 


37 


HIDALGO  39 


PART  IV. 

When  Hidalgo  was  four  years  old  Papa 
began  to  leave  him  without  being  tied  to  the 
hitching  post.  He  would  drive  him  around 
in  front  of  the  house  and  turn  him  loose  to 
eat  grass,  while  he  went  into  the  house  to 
get  ready  to  go  downtown.  Sometimes  Hi 
would  be  loose  for  an  hour  or  two  with  no 
one  to  watch  him.  He  would  back  up,  turn 
around,  and  go  where  he  pleased.  He  never 
got  caught  or  upset  the  buggy.  We  have 
turned  him  loose  ever  since  in  this  way. 

We  do  not  use  blind  bridles  on  him.  This 
makes  him  a  safer  horse.  When  a  horse  is 
prevented  by  his  blind  bridle  from  seeing 
plainly  a  strange  object  which  he  must  pass, 
he  becomes  frightened. 

One  time  Hi  was  loose  with  the  buggy. 
Another  horse  came  running  past  him.  Hi 
jumped  and  ran  about  twenty  steps.  After 
he  saw  what  it  was  he  stopped,  but  if  he  had 
had  blinds  on  he  might  have  been  running 
yet,  thinking  that  something  dreadful  was 


40  HIDALGO 

after  him.  Once  a  dog  chased  a  cow  past  a 
horse  having  on  a  blind  bridle.  The  horse 
jumped  forward,  broke  the  tugs  and  hold- 
back straps  and  got  out  of  the  shafts.  Then 
he  turned  around  and  looked  to  see  what  had 
frightened  him.  He  seemed  to  think  it  queer 
that  it  was  only  a  cow  and  a  dog.  He  im- 
agined it  to  be  at  least  a  bear  or  an  elephant. 
The  man  took  his  knife  and  cut  the  blinds  off 
right  there. 

One  time  we  hitched  Hi  to  the  sleigh,  put 
the  bells  on,  and  tied  him  in  the  buggy  shed. 
When  we  came  out  to  go  down  town,  there 
was  nothing  to  be  seen  but  the  buggy  shed 
and  the  sleigh  tracks.  We  were  just  a  little 
bit  uneasy  and  followed  the  tracks  till  we 
found  Hi  pawing  the  snow  away  to  get  some 
grass.  Hidalgo  used  to  get  out  of  the  stable 
quite  often.  We  never  found  any  sure 
way  of  keeping  him  in  his  box  stall  till 
this  winter,  for  he  can  loose  a  hook,  a  snap 
hook  and  a  snap  and  untie  almost  any 
thing. 

When  the  door  is  hooked  on  the  other  side 
he  jars  it  with  his  front  foot  until  the  hook 
jumps  up  and  lets  him  out,  and  even  when 
you  put  a  nail  above  the  hook  it  will  not  al- 


"2 


ffi 


41 


HIDALGO  43 

ways  keep  him  in,  for  he  springs  the  door 
until  it  comes  open.  We  fixed  the  door  to 
the  stall  by  putting  a  bar  on  the  outside 
and  dropping  it  into  the  notches.  But  the 
door  between  his  stall  and  the  next  one  has 
never  been  fastened  to  stay.  We  tied  it  with 
a  rope  and  tried  a  wire  and  everything  we 
could  think  of,  and  it  was  all  the  same.  We 
would  do  it  and  Hi  would  un-do  it.  We  put 
a  hook  low  down  on  the  other  side  of  the 
door  where  we  thought  Hi  couldn  't  find  it  if 
he  could  reach  it,  and  where  he  couldn't 
reach  it  if  he  could  find  it;  but  he  found  it 
and  reached  it  and  had  the  door  open  before 
we  were  out  of  the  stall. 

When  I  was  two  years  old  and  Ruth  was 
a  baby,  Papa  and  Mama  went  with  us  out  to 
Grandpa 's.  It  was  so  muddy  that  we  rode 
in  the  cart.  When  we  came  into  town  in  the 
evening  it  was  very  dark.  The  electric 
street  lights  blinded  Papa  so  that  he  drove 
one  wheel  up  on  a  bank  of  dirt.  The  cart 
upset.  This  upset  Hidalgo  and  we  all  fell 
in  the  mud.  Papa  was  on  the  down  side  and 
he  tossed  Mama  over  him  as  we  went  down 
and  she  lost  Ruth  in  the  blankets.  Before 
Papa  could  get  up  Mama  was  pulling  at  the 


44  HIDALGO 

blankets  to  find  Ruth.  I  don't  know  about 
me,  but  I  guess  I  was  all  right,  for  it  did 
not  hurt  any  of  us.  A  man  saw  us  tumble 
and  came  to  help  us.  They  had  to  take  off 
every  bit  of  Hi's  harness,  before  he  could 
get  up.  Hi  did  not  struggle.  They  hitched 
him  up  again  and  we  got  home  all  right. 

Papa  says  that  he  will  tell  me  some  stories 
to  put  in  my  letter  but  that  I  must  tell  some 
stories  about  myself  as  well  as  about  other 
people. 

One  time  I  asked  Papa  what  cats  were  for, 
and  he  said  to  catch  mice;  after  a  little  I 
asked  him  what  mice  were  for,  and  he  said 
they  were  for  the  cats  to  eat.  Then  I  asked 
him  of  what  use  are  cats  and  mice  ?  He  said 
I  suppose  you  think  we  could  get  along 
without  either  cats  or  mice!  He  said  that 
there  were  many  things  that  we  could  not 
understand. 

There  used  to  be  a  man  who  tied  his  mules 
on  our  street  and  left  them  and  his  dog  till 
very  late.  I  talked  about  it  a  great  deal  and 
wondered  where  the  man  was.  Papa  said, 
"Maybe  he  is  in  the  saloon  or  in  jail."  I 
asked  him  why  they  let  them  sell  the  man 
beer  and  then  put  him  in  jail  for  drinking  it. 


HIDALGO  45 

Papa  told  me  to  go  and  ask  Grandma,  for 
she  belongs  to  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union.  This  is  about  all  the  stories 
I  know  about  myself:  I  can  tell  you  some 
about  Ruth  and  Wendell.  Ruth  is  a  good 
girl.  When  she  wants  anything  and  can't 
have  it,  she  almost  always  gives  up  without 
making  a  fuss.  When  she  was  little  she 
would  say,  "I  would  like  to  have  it,  Papa, 
but  I  won 't '  cuss '  about  it. ' '  She  couldn  't 
say  "fuss":  Papa  said  it  meant  the  same 
thing. 

She  says  that  the  reason  the  old  hen 
flops  around  after  her  head  has  been  cut  off 
is  because  she  is  hunting  her  head.  Another 
time  Ruth  said,  "Oh,  Papa!  I  believe  that 
spring  has  come:  we  have  had  three  nice 
days  in  procession."  When  she  was  about 
four  years  old  Papa  took  her  with  him  to 
La  Fayette.  They  stopped  at  several  places 
looking  for  the  son  of  a  man  who  had  died. 
After  a  while  they  went  to  the  telephone  of- 
fice. Ruth  said,  "Papa,  are  you  going  to 
telephone  to  the  man  who  is  dead  ? ' '  When 
she  saw  the  girl  at  the  telephone  office  with 
the  receiver  held  to  her  ears  by  springs  she 
asked,  "Papa,  can't  the  lady  get  loose?" 


46  HIDALGO 

The  other  day  Wendell  saw  the  Dentist, 
and  said,  "There  is  Dr.  Given,  the  tooth- 
ache man. ' '  One  morning  I  fooled  Wendell. 
He  had  cut  his  finger  and  Mama  had  tied  it 
up  before  he  went  to  bed.  In  the  morning 
the  rag  was  off.  The  cut  had  closed  up.  He 
said  to  me,  "Howard,  I  can't  find  the  cut." 
I  said,  "Why,  Wendell,  the  cut  is  in  the 
rag. ' '  And  I  almost  made  him  believe  it. 

Wendell  teased  Mama  the  other  day  when 
we  had  company  for  dinner.  He  slyly 
brought  up  the  corner  of  his  napkin  as  if  it 
were  the  corner  of  the  tablecloth,  wiped  his 
mouth  with  it  and  said,  l  i  This  is  the  way  I 
do  when  we  haven 't  company. ' '  He  showed 
them  afterwards  that  he  was  using  his  nap- 
kin and  not  the  tablecloth. 

The  other  morning,  about  daylight,  I 
heard  him  in  his  sleep,  smacking  his  lips  and 
kissing.  I  called,  "Papa,  Wendell  is  kiss- 
ing the  pillow  and  thinks  it  is  you."  He 
has  a  habit  of  kissing  Papa  this  way  when 
he  first  wakens. 

He  came  to  Mama  the  other  day  feeling 
very  badly  because  the  largei  boys  did  not 
want  him  to  play  with  them.  Mama  told 
him  that  she  was  sorry  but  it  could  not  be 


HIDALGO  47 

helped.  She  said  that  he  must  not  think  that 
every  unpleasant  thing  would  do  him  harm. 
She  told  him  a  story  that  she  had  read.  It 
was  about  how  pearls  are  formed. 

A  grain  of  sand  gets  inside  of  the  oyster 's 
shell,  and  hurts  the  oyster.  The  oyster  does 
not  sit  down  and  cry  about  it,  he  just  puts  a 
soft  covering  around  the  grain  of  sand  which 
stops  the  pain  and  by  and  by  when  the  cover- 
ing hardens,  it  is  a  pearl. 

Mama  said  that  often  "grains  of  sand" 
get  into  our  lives,  but  instead  of  letting  them 
make  us  cross  and  fretful,  we  should  control 
them  and  learn  to  be  patient  and  by  and  by 
they  would  be  as  pearls  to  us. 

Mama  then  told  Wendell  that  if  he  would 
go  and  ask  some  of  the  neighbor  children,  of 
his  own  age,  to  come  and  play  with  him, 
she  would  play  with  them  and  teach  them 
some  games.  That  made  pearls  out  of  his 
troubles,  because  we  children  like  to  have 
Mama  in  our  games. 

Sometimes,  when  the  weather  is  bad,  we 
coax  Papa  to  play  marbles  with  us  in  the 
house.  When  the  weather  is  nice  we  play 
marbles  at  school.  A  great  many  of  the  boys 
play  for  keeps,  but  I  have  promised  Mama 


48  HIDALGO 


that  I  will  not  do  that.  She  says  that  is  the 
way  boys  commence  to  gamble,  and  that 
when  one  becomes  a  gambler  his  chance  of 
doing  much  good  in  this  world  is  very  small. 


o 

•3" 

TJ 
S 


I 


49 


51 


53 


HIDALGO  55 


PART  V.  , 

When  Hidalgo  was  five  years  old,  Papa 
trained  him  to  come  under  the  shafts  and  to 
back  into  his  place.  Since  then  Papa  takes 
hold  of  the  point  of  the  left  shaft  with  his 
left  hand,  holds  the  shafts  up,  snaps  his 
fingers  and  Hi  comes  around  under  the 
shafts  and  back  into  his  place.  People  like 
to  see  him  hitched.  Harold  Stevens  says 
that  Hi  knows  more  than  some  people.  We 
had  him  down  town  the  other  'day  and  un- 
h'itched  him  to  get  the  harness  mended.  As 
soon  as  he  was  loose  he  began  to  hunt  for 
apples,  potatoes  or  anything  he  could  find  in 
front  of  the  grocery  stores.  But  when  Papa 
snapped  his  fingers  Hi  went  back  into  the 
shafts.  The  men  thought  him  a  well  trained 
horse. 

When  we  are  driving  Hidalgo  single,  and 
he  wants  to  stop  trotting  and  walk  awhile,  he 
will  turn  his  head  to  the  right  and  his  body 
to  the  left  to  tell  us  that  he  is  tired  and  wants 
to  slow  up.  When  we  drive  him  with  an- 


56  HIDALGO 

other  horse  he  will  tell  us  when  he  gets  tired 
but  he  will  not  allow  the  other  horse  to  get 
ahead  of  him. 

Hidalgo  can't  talk  but  he  can  come  very 
near  it.  He  will  tell  us  if  we  have  forgotten 
to  feed  him.  Sometimes  Papa  tells  us  to 
feed  at  the  usual  time,  if  he  does  not  expect 
to  get  home  till  it  is  late.  When  Hidalgo 
hears  Papa  coming  he  calls  to  him  or  whin- 
neys.  One  way  of  whinneying  means  ' '  How 
do  you  do ' '  and  another  way  means  '  *  I  want 
my  dinner,"  and  if  it  is  3  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  or  9  o'clock  at  night,  he  will  tell 
Papa  if  he  did  not  have  his  feed.  Papa  will 
feed  him  and  then  tell  us  children  that  we 
forgot  to  feed  Hidalgo.  We  have  never 
caught  Hi  storying  about  his  feed. 

When  Papa  was  a  boy  he  and  his  brothers 
had  three  dogs.  One  was  named  ' l  Sancho. ' ' 
He  was  a  Newfoundland  dog.  He  was  black 
and  had  long  hair.  The  other  two  were  bird 
dogs.  One  was  a  brown  Pointer  called 
1 '  Ponto. ' '  The  other  was  a  white  setter. 

Sancho  and  Ponto  were  good  watch  dogs. 
They  slept  in  the  store  and  people  could  walk 
along  the  sidewalk  all  through  the  night  and 
the  dogs  would  not  care.  But  if  anyone  came 


HIDALGO  57 

to  the  door  they  would  bark.  If  Papa  left 
the  store  the  dogs  barked  if  anyone  came  to 
the  door,  but  they  were  not  cross  dogs. 
Sancho  made  friends  with  the  old  cat  that 
kept  her  kittens  in  the  closet  at  the  store. 
He  would  lie  near  the  kittens  and  watch 
every  move  they  made.  He  would  not  allow 
any  stranger  to  touch  the  kittens.  One  day 
he  carried  a  kitten  out  of  doors,  but  he  did 
not  hurt  it  at  all. 

Sancho  and  Ponto  hunted  rabbits  together. 
One  time  Sancho  was  close  upon  a  rabbit, 
inside  a  board  fence.  Ponto  was  keeping 
up  on  the  other  side.  The  rabbit  thought  it 
had  better  get  through  the  fence  to  get  away 
from  Sancho.  Ponto  caught  it  as  it  came 
through.  Sancho  caught  it  too  and  said, 
"Let  go  of  my  rabbit.  I  chased  it  and  I 
caught  it. ' '  Ponto  said,  "  It  is  not  your  rab- 
bit. I  caught  it  as  it  came  under  the  fence 
when  it  was  getting  away  from  you. ' ' 

One  time  when  Papa  was  a  boy,  he  and 
several  other  boys  took  the  dogs  and  went 
to  hunt  wolves.  They  came  to  where  some 
boys  were  chasing  rabbits  on  a  big  pond  that 
was  frozen  over  and  had  tall  grass  in  it. 
They  started  Sancho  and  Ponto  after  the 


58  HIDALGO 

rabbits  and  followed  on  their  horses.  The 
other  boys  said,  "Your  dogs  can't  catch 
rabbits.  They  go  right  through  the  grass 
after  them  and  can't  run  fast  enough  that 
way."  But  Papa  told  them  to  wait  and  see. 
The  other  dogs  jumped  high  when  they  ran 
after  a  rabbit  and  so  lost  sight  of  it.  Pretty 
soon  Sancho  and  Ponto  showed  them  that 
they  could  catch  more  rabbits  than  the  other 
dogs.  That  evening  they  chased  two  wolves 
but  could  not  catch  them.  The  wolves  could 
run  faster,  in  the  snow,  than  the  horses,  and 
the  horses  could  run  faster  than  the  dogs. 
They  chased  wolves  a  good  many  times  after 
that,  but  never  caught  any. 

One  time  Papa  shot  a  wolf  with  a  double- 
barreled  shot  gun.  He  and  some  other  boys 
were  liunting  prairie  chickens.  They  had  a 
team  of  horses  hitched  to  a  light  wagon. 
They  drove  across  the  paririe  letting  the 
dogs  hunt.  As  soon  as  the  dogs  began  to 
trail  chickens  one  boy  would  drive  the  team 
and  the  rest  followed  the  dogs  and  shot 
chickens.  In  the  evening  they  saw,  away 
across  the  prairie,  a  wolf.  Papa  told  the 
boys  that  if  they  would  drive  toward  the 
wolf  he  would  try  to  get  a  shot  at  it.  They 


HIDALGO  59 

drove  up  close  enough  so  that  Papa  shot  the 
wolf,  but  the  firing  of  the  gun,  out  of  the 
wagon,  frightened  the  horses.  They  jumped 
and  broke  the  neck  yoke  which  let  the  wagon 
tongue  down.  Then  the  horses  ran  and 
pulled  the  tongue  into  the  ground.  The 
wagon  went  up  into  the  air.  Papa  jumped 
and  came  to  the  ground  on  his  knees.  •  He 
held  his  gun,  though,  so  that  it  did  not  go 
off,  although  the  other  hammer  of  the  gun 
was  up.  The  horses  ran  away  and  the  boys 
had  to  walk  about  four  miles.  They  found 
the  horses  at  home. 

When  Papa  was  a  boy  he  tried  to  make 
pets  of  two  young  wolves,  but  he  could  not 
tame  them.  They  were  the  Grossest  things 
you  ever  saw  and  had  all  kinds  of  smell 
about  them.  One  got  out  and  killed  about 
two  hundred  tame  chickens  before  they  suc- 
ceeded in  shooting  it. 

Pets  are  nice  if  they  are  tame.  We  tried 
to  tame  a  prairie  chicken  once  but  you  can- 
not tame  them  either.  When  you  find  a 
prairie  chicken's  nest  where  only  half  of 
the  little  chickens  are  out  of  their  shells,  the 
old  hen  starts  off  as  if  she  had  a  broken 
wing.  She  wants  to  make  you  chase  her,  to 


60  HIDALGO 

get  you  away  from  her  nest,  but  you  cannot 
catch  her,  and  the  little  chickens  will  be  hid- 
den in  the  grass  before  you 'can  pick  one  up. 
They  are  wild  from  the  time  they  get  out  of 
the  shell. 

We  had  a  pet  coon  one  time  that  could 
crack  hickory  nuts.  He  could  also  catch 
chickens.  One  day  we  saw  him  catch  a 
chicken  with  his  back  paw  as  easily  as  he 
could  have  done  it  with  his  front  paw.  His 
chain  was  too  short  and  so  he  just  reached 
out  and  caught  that  chicken  with  his  hind 
paw.  Their  paws  are  nearly  the  shape  of  a 
person's  hand.  We  gave  the  coon  away. 
Some  dogs  killed  it  not  long  afterwards.  A 
coon  is  a  good  fighter  and  can  whip  most 
dogs. 

When  Uncle  Dave  lived  on  the  farm  he 
had  fine  horses,  hogs,  sheep  and  cattle.  He 
had  small  yellow  cows,  called  Jersey  cows. 
The  calves  were  as  pretty  as  deer.  He  had 
some  deer  too.  There  were  two  old  deer  and 
a  little  spotted  fawn.  They  were  the  West- 
ern or  White  tailed  deer.  He  kept  them  in 
a  lot  or  park  between  the  house  and  the  road 
where  there  were  nice  shade  trees  and  grass. 
Deer  do  not  become  very  tame  but  these  deer 


HIDALGO  61 

would  eat  oats  out  of  your  hand.  You  ought 
to  see  deer  run.  They  gather  their  legs  close 
up  under  them  when  they  leap,  and  each  time 
they  touch  the  ground  they  jump  again  as  if 
they  were  on  springs.  When  they  are  at  full 
speed  they  jump  twenty  to  thirty  feet  each 
time. 

Uncle  Dave's  deer,  in  playing,  would 
jump  seven  feet  high.  The  fence  around 
the  park  was  only  six  and  a  half  feet  high 
but  they  did  not  jump  out.  Deer  will  eat 
the  leaves  off  the  trees  as  high  as  they  can 
reach  and  by  standing  on  their  hind  feet 
they  can  reach  as  high  as  a  man  can. 
,  One  time  my  Papa  and  your  Papa  had 
four  wild  geese.  They  let  them  run  loose 
around  town.  The  old  gander  was  very 
cross.  He  would  hurt  children.  They  also 
had  a  brant  (a  brant  is*  nearly  like  a  wild 
goose),  a  snipe  and  a  Sand  Hill  crane.  One 
evening  a  man  said  that  he  had  seen  a  crane 
flying  over  town  very  low.  Papa  said,  "I 
believe  it  was  mine,"  and  so  it  was.  Its 
wings  had  gotten  well  and  it  flew  away. 
Papa  had  a  young  Sand  Hill  crane  and  it 
followed  at  his  heels  so  closely  that  it  died 
from  too  much  tramping  on. 


62  HIDALGO 

A  Sand  Hill  crane  builds  her  nest  in  a 
pond  where  there  are  plenty  of  rushes  and 
builds  it  so  high  that  she  can  stand  in  the 
water  astride  of  the  nest,  because  she  cannot 
coil  up  her  legs.  She  lays  two  eggs  that  are 
larger  than  goose  eggs.  I  have  never  seen  a 
crane's  nest  but  Papa  has.  I  know  of  sev- 
eral kinds  of  cranes. 

There  is  a  small  blue  crane  and  a  white 
crane  and  sometimes  we  see,  away  up  in  the 
sky  almost  out  of  sight,  a  large  white  crane 
which  has  black  spots  on  its  wings.  We 
have  never  seen  them  close  to  the  ground. 
When  Uncle  Dave  was  coming  home  with 
his  first  shot  gun  he  shot  at  one  of  these 
cranes.  The  crane  was  only  about  half  a 
mile  from  the  earth. 

The  Sand  Hill  Cranes  are  light  colored, 
and  have  bodies  as  large  as  a  Thanksgiving 
turkey,  with  legs  and  neck  nearly  twice  as 
long  as  a  turkey's.  They  are  very  fine  eat- 
ing. Papa  has  shot  quite  a  number  of  them. 
They  used  to  be  very  plentiful  here.  He  saw 
a  flock  once  that  covered  the  prairie  like 
sheep  as  far  as  he  could  see.  He  could  not 
get  close  enough  to  shoot  any  of  them.  When 
he  shot  at  them  the  nearest  ones  flew  a  little 
way  then  lit  again. 


HIDALGO  63 

Sand  Hill  Cranes  play  games.  They  hop, 
skip  and  jump  like  a  lot  of  boys.  Boys  can- 
not jump  as  cranes  jump  though,  for  the 
cranes  jump  over  each  other  without  using 
their  wings.  The  whole  flock  take  part  in 
the  play. 

When  Sand  Hill  Cranes  are  on  the  ground 
it  is  hard  for  them  to  get  on  the  wing.  They 
will  run  as  fast  as  they  can  and  then  start 
their  wings  to  working.  Sometimes  the 
hunters  will  ride  horseback.  When  they  see 
the  cranes  are  about  to  fly  they  run  their 
horses  towards  them  and  in  this  way  get 
within  gun  shot  before  the  cranes  can  get 
into  swift  motion. 

Sand  Hill  Cranes  fly  high  in  circles  as  the 
white  and  black  cranes  do.  You  can  hear 
them  calling  some  time  before  you  see  where 
they  are.  They  rise  higher  and  higher,  while 
circling,  till  they  are  out  of  sight. 

It  is  only  when  the  sky  is  its  bluest  and  all 
the  world  is  asleep  in  the  daytime  that  you 
can  see  the  cranes  circling  in  the  sky.  Their 
far-away  calling  makes  everything  seem 
more  quie.t. 


64  HIDALGO 


PART  VI. 

When  Hidalgo  was  six  years  old  Papa 
asked  the  trainer  to  take  him  again  and  train 
him  to  trot  faster.  The  training  made  him  a 
great  deal  better  horse  for  he  got  so  he  could 
trot  faster  than  any  horse  about  here  and  it 
made  him  so  steady  that  we  could  race  him, 
on  the  road,  with  any  horse  and  he  would 
not -break  from  the  trot.  I  believe  that  Hi- 
dalgo would  race  with  a  fire  engine  and  not 
break.  Most  horses,  even  if  they  are  fast 
on  a  race  track,  get  excited  when  raced  on 
the  roads  and  will  break  into  a  gallop. 

One  time  Papa  and  we  three  children  were 
coining  in  from  the  country.  We  were  in 
the  old  buggy.  A  young  man  came  up  be- 
hind us  with  a  pretty  good  horse.  There 
were  two  tracks  so  he  came  alongside  of  us. 
We  started  to  race  with  him.  Hidalgo  was 
soon  ahead,  but  because  we  were  holding  him 
in  and  because  there  was  no  keeper  on  one 
end  of  the  single-tree,  Hi's  tug  came  loose. 
Papa  said,  ' '  Hold  on,  Mister,  my  tug  is  off. 


HIDALGO  65 

Wait  till  I  fix  it  and  I  will  give  you  a  race. ' ' 
But  the  man  did  not  hold  on,  he  just  kept 
going.  We  couldn't  catch  up  with  him  be- 
fore he  got  to  town.  Euth  and  Wendell  were 
on  their  knees  holding  to  the  dashboard. 
Ruth  said,  "0,  my!  wasn't  that  too  bad! 
That  was  such  a  nice  horse  and  we  would 
have  had  a  nice  race  if  the  tug  hadn't  come 
off." 

I  believe  that  Hidalgo  likes  to  race  better 
than  to  eat,  but  there  is  nothing  else  ahead 
of  eating  with  him.  He  will  eat  anything  we 
eat  except  meat.  He  will  eat  gravy,  though, 
and  he  eats  pickles,  apples  and  all  kinds  of 
fruit,  peanuts,  candy,  bread,  cookies,  sweet 
milk,  sour  milk,  and  pancakes.  When  he 
gets  out  of  the  barn  he  will  come  to  the  back 
door  to  see  if  we  have  anything  left  from  the 
table  for  him  to  eat.  After  that  he  will  go 
and  eat  grass.  When  we  have  candy,  apples 
or  raisins  about  us  we  can  hardly  get  him 
hitched  up.  He  follows  us  around  and  begs 
for  what  we  are  eating.  One  day  Papa  had  a 
piece  of  hoarhound  candy  in  his  mouth  and 
Hi  smelled  it.  He  asked  for  some  of  that, 
even.  He  has  not  learned  to  drink  or  smoke 
though  for  he  never  smells  whiskey  or  to- 
bacco on  Papa 's  breath. 


66  HIDALGO 

But  Hidalgo  isn't  a  hog  if  he  does  eat 
scraps  from  the  table,  for  he  knows  when  he 
has  enough.  He  has  never  hurt  himself  eat- 
ing. Papa  says  that  he  has  thought  of  try- 
ing the  plan  of  leaving  the  oat  bin  open  so 
that  he  can  eat  whenever  he  is  hungry  like 
the  man  we  heard  of,  who  said  they  had  only 
one  pocketbook  in  their  family,  and  each 
person  used  what  money  he  needed  from  it. 
Papa  says  it  is  right  to  have  our  own  things 
and  our  own  money,  but  that  he  would 
rather  we  should  learn  to  use  our  money  in 
a  right  way  than  to  save  it  up.  He  does  not 
want  us  to  save  up  our  money  while  we  are 
little  but  says  that  after  we  have  commenced 
to  earn  money  we  can  save  it.  He  knew  some 
children  once,  whose  father  and  mother  were 
very  liberal  people.  The  children  were 
taught  to  save  up  money.  They  deposited 
their  money  in  the  bank  and  then  begged 
candy  from  the  other  children.  He  is  afraid 
those  children  will  be  misers  and  beggars. 
He  says  that  people  count  what  you  are,  and 
what  you  do,  more  than  what  you  have. 

When  Papa  was  a  boy  he  saved  up  three 
dollars  and  he  figured  for  three  months  be- 
fort  the  4th  of  July  how  many  bunches 


HIDALGO  67 

of  fire-crackers  he  could  buy  with  it.  He 
says  that  it  is  not  good  to  save  up  money 
and  then  spend  it  for  something  that  is  of 
little  use.  Papa  had  more  trouble  in  getting 
"Wendell  to  spend  his  money  than  to  get  him 
to  save  it.  He  would  not  use  his  own  money 
for  anything.  If  he  wanted  to  buy  anything 
he  would  ask  Papa  for  the  money  instead  of 
using  his  own,  but  he  is  getting  to  be  pretty 
good  about  it  now.  He  is  not  going  to  be 
stingy. 

Last  summer  Wendell  asked  how  they 
make  money.  Papa  told  him  that  the  Gov- 
ernment made  it,  and  that  we  worked  so  that 
we  could  get  some  of  it.  After  awhile  Wen- 
dell went  to  pushing  a  neighbor's  lawn 
mower.  Papa  called  to  him  and  told  him  to 
quit,  that  it  was  too  hard  work  for  him,  but 
Wendell  kept  right  on.  Papa  called  him 
again  and  said,  "Wendell,  quit  that,  it  is  too 
hard  on  you  and  there  is  no  money  in  it  for 
you."  Wendell  said,  "I'm  going  to  get 
some  money  from  the  Government. ' '  When 
the  neighbor  heard  about  it  he  gave  Wendell 
a  dime,  so  there  was  money  in  it  after  all. 

Wendell  and  Donald  play  together  a  great 
deal.  Donald  is  four  years  old  and  he  lives 


68  HIDALGO 

across  the  street  from  us.  One  time  Donald 
stayed  for  supper  with  Wendell  and  we  had 
ice  cream  which  was  frozen  pretty  hard. 
Donald  was  slow  about  eating  his  ice  cream 
and  by  and  by,  after  it  began  to  melt  he  said, 
"I  like  the  juice  the  best." 

When  I  write  again  I  will  tell  you  about 
our  trip  through  Indiana. 


HIDALGO  69 


PART  VII. 

The  summer  that  Hidalgo  was  seven  years 
old  we  made  quite  a  trip  with  him  and  an- 
other horse  named  Tony,  through  Indiana. 
Cousin  Harry  was  then  living  near  Craw- 
fordsville.  We  enjoyed  the  whole  trip  but 
we  had  the  best  time  at  Cousin  Harry's. 
While  there  we  picked  and  ate  grapes  and 
peaches  and  ran  all  over  the  farm.  Going 
into  Crawfordsville  we  drove  down  a  very 
steep  hill.  It  is  a  beautiful,  clean  city,  with 
many  fine  buildings.  We  drove  past  the 
Wabash  College  buildings. 

Indiana  has  fine  schools  and  colleges  all 
over  the  state.  Mama  told  us  that  Craw- 
fordsville is  the  home  of  Lew  Wallace,  who 
wrote  Ben  Hur,  and  of  Morris  Thompson, 
who  wrote  so  much  about  archery  and  out  of 
door  life.  Indiana  has  many  good  writers. 

We  found  some  very  bad  roads  in  the 
northern  part  of  Indiana.  The  sand,  in  some 
places,  was  so  deep  that  it  made  the  horses 
very  tired.  Sometimes  the  people  haul 


70  HIDALGO 

black  dirt  or  straw  and  scatter  it  on  the 
roads  on  the  sand  hills  so  that  the  horses  and 
wagons  will  not  sink  into  the  sand.  Some 
of  the  wagon  wheels  have  tires  that  are  six 
inches  broad,  to  keep  them  from  cutting  into 
the  sand.  Indiana  has  many  gravel  roads 
and  rock  roads.  They  are  the  finest  roads 
we  ever  drove  over. 

Earl  Cannady,  Wendell  and  I  went  out  to 
Grandma's  yesterday  to  visit  Uncle  Ralph. 
Uncle  Ralph  is  only  six  months  older  than  I 
am.  On  the  road  out  we  saw  a  queer  sight. 
Four  or  five  king  birds  were  flying  around 
and  chirping  and  crying  above  a  tree  that 
was  in  the  hedge  fence.  It  was  a  small  hedge 
tree  that  had  been  allowed  to  grow  up.  We 
wondered  what  could  be  the  matter.  Earl 
went  up  close  to  the  tree  and  he  could  see  a 
king  bird's  nest  and  about  half  of  a  snake 
was  hanging  out  of  the  nest.  The  snake  had 
climbed  the  tree  to  get  the  eggs  or  little 
birds.  The  nest  was  about  ten  feet  from  the 
ground  and  the  tree  was  about  three  or  four 
inches  in  thickness.  Hedge  trees  have  sharp 
thorns  on  them  and  I  would  not 'want  to 
climb  one.  We  threw  sticks  at  the  snahe  till 
it  fell  down.  After  we  had  killed  it  we  found 


pfl 

H 


71 


HIDALGO  73 

that  it  had  a  young  bird  in  its  mouth. 
Across  the  road  from  where  we  live  a  snake 
crawled  up  into  the  lilac  bushes  and  ate 
the  eggs  out  of  a  Catbird's  nest.  This  nest 
was  about  five  feet  from  the  ground. 

A  few  days  ago  we  went  out  beyond 
Grandma's  to  see  the  dredge  ditcher  work. 
We'  tied  Hidalgo  to  the  fence  and  walked 
down  to  the  ditch.  When  we  were  coming 
back  to  the  surrey,  Ruth  got  into  a  bumble- 
bee's  nest.  She  fought  the  bumble-bees  with 
hands  and  feet.  Some  of  the  bumble-bees 
stung  her.  Papa  ran  and  picked  her  up. 
She  had  two  or  three  stings  in  one  spot. 
Papa  thought  he  would  try  sucking  the  poi- 
son out  as  they  do  with  snake  bites.  It 
worked  all  right  and  the  pain  left  her  right 
away.  Papa  had  a  bird  dog  once  that  chased 
bumble-bees.  He  said  he  thought  the  pup's 
success  would  be  his  greatest  misfortune. 
If  he  had  caught  the  bumble-bee  it  would 
have  stung  him.  Papa  says,  a  great  many 
things  are  that  way:  we  want  something 
very  much  and  when  we  get  it  we  are  sorry 
that  we  have  it. 

But  I  was  going  to  tell  you  about  the 
dredge  boat.  It  is  a  covered  boat  and  has 


74  HIDALGO 

an  engine  on  it.  It  has  a  great  big  scoop  in 
front  fastened  to  a  long  beam  or  arm  which 
makes  it  look  like  a  dipper.  They  control 
the  scoop  from  the  boat  by  chains  and  lev- 
ers. I  thought  it  looked  like  an  elephant's 
trunk.  The  scoop  is  brought  back  into  the 
bottom  of  the  ditch  close  to  the  boat  and 
then  it  goes  outward  and  upward  and  fills 
itself  with  dirt;  the  scoop  then  swings 
around  to  one  side  and  by  jerking  a  rope  the 
bottom  is  opened  and  the  dirt  falls  out.  The 
bottom  of  the  scoop  closes  as  it  goes  back 
after  another  load.  The  scoop  holds  about 
a  wagon  load  of  dirt.  In  working  a  dredge 
ditcher  there  must  be  plenty  of  water  so  that 
the  boat  can  float  and  so  the  dirt  will  slip 
out  of  the  scoop.  They  take  the  boat  and  en- 
gine to  pieces  and  haul  them  on  wagons  to 
the  upper  end  of  the  ditch  they  are  to  make 
and  work  down  stream  so  the  water  will  fol- 
low them.  One  set  of  men  work  the  dredge 
boat  in  the  day  time  and  another  set  at  night. 
Sometimes  they  work  on  Sundays  too.  I  do 
not  think  that  is  right.  The  dredge  boat,  you 
see,  gets  no  rest  except  when  it  breaks  down, 
which  it  does  every  little  while.  But  they 
have  a  blacksmith  shop  on  the  boat  and  can 


HIDALGO  75 

mend  anything  that  breaks.  Many  people 
went  out  to  see  it  work  last  summer.  Some 
of  them  looked  prettier  when  they  went  than 
when  they  came  away,  because  they  got 
splashed  when  the  dirt  fell  out  of  the  scoop. 


77 


79 


81 


HIDALGO  83 


PAET  VIII. 

The  fall  that  Hidalgo  was  eight  years  old, 
we  drove  to  Wenona,  Illinois,  to  visit 
Mama's  relatives  and  attend  the  family  re- 
union. While  there  we  drove  to  Deer  Park 
and  Starved  Eock,  which  are  about  thirty 
miles  northeast  of  Wenona.  On  the  way  we 
passed  the  old  mill  where  Grandpa  Kemp 
used  to  take  his  wheat  to  get  it  ground.  Deer 
Park  is  a  very  pretty  place.  You  drive  to- 
ward it  right  through  the  prairie  until  you 
come  to  the  timber:  then  you  drive  down 
and  down  until  you  come  to  the  edge  of  a 
big  ditch— a  canyon  they  call  it.  The  sides 
are  rock,  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred 
feet  high.  There  is  a  bridge  across  it.  In 
the  bottom  of  the  canyon  is  a  flowing  well, 
that  throws  water  about  fifty  feet  high. 
They  call  it  Deer  Park  because  the  first  set- 
tlers used  to  drive  the  deer  into  the  canyon 
and  shut  them  in.  They  have  a  herd  of  deer 
now  in  the  park. 

Starved  Rock  is  on  the  south  side  of  the 


84  HIDALGO 

Illinois  River  between  La  Salle  and  Ottawa. 
Three  of  its  sides,  the  east,  the  west  and  the 
north,  are  as  steep  as  the  sides  of  a  house. 
The  top  of  the  rock  is  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  feet  above  the  river.  If  you  drop 
a  stone  from  the  top  of  the  north  side  it 
would  fall  into  the  river.  On  the  west  you 
look  down  upon  a  large  hotel,  on  the  east 
side  you  look  down  over  the  tree  tops.  We 
climbed  up  at  the  south  side  where  it  is  not 
so  steep.  The  top  of  the  rock  is  about  ten 
rods  square.  There  is  a  story  that  a  party  of 
Illinois  Indians  took  refuge  here  from  some 
hostile  Pottawatomies  and  the  Pottawato- 
mies  guarded  the  south  side  so  closely  that 
the  Illinois  Indians  could  not  get  down. 
They  ran  out  of  food  and  when  they  let 
buckets  down  on  the  north  side  to  get  water 
the  Indians  below  cut  the  ropes  and  kept  the 
buckets.  The  Indians  on  the  Rock  starved 
or  died  of  thirst. 

They  now,  sometimes,  get  up  an  Indian 
show,  there,  and  act  it  all  out.  About  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men  dress  like  Indians 
and  part  of  them  are  chased  up  on  to 
Starved  Rock  by  the  others.  Then  there  is 
lots  of  yelling  and  shooting.  I  think  that  it 
would  make  a  pretty  good  show. 


85 


87 


89 


91 


93 


A  Canyon  near  Starved  Rock. 
95 


A  Canyon  near  the  Rock. 
97 


A  Canyon  near  Starved  Rock. 
QQ 


HIDALGO  101 

There  are  six  or  seven  canyons  near 
Starved  Rock  that  are  very  much  like  Deer 
Park  Canyon,  and  there  is  one  high  rock 
they  call  the  Pulpit.  It  looks  like  the  pul- 
pits you  see  in  some  churches,  only  it  is  a 
great  deal  larger.  There  is  a  large  hotel 
and  several  cottages  at  Starved  Rock.  We 
rented  two*  of  the  cottages. 

We  drove  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  that  trip.  When  we  got  back  .home 
Papa  found  that  he  had  to  go  to  Indiana 
again.  He  said  it  would  be  nice  to  drive 
Hidalgo  and  Star,  and  all  of  us  go  in  the 
surrey.  Of  course  we  all  said  that  we  would 
go.  We  wrote  to  our  friends  at  different 
places  telling  them  the  time  they  might  ex- 
pect us.  We  found  them  all  expecting  us 
and  we  made  each  place  on  time.  We  visited 
for  a  few  days  with  friends  who  live  thirteen 
miles  northwest  of  La  Fayette,  Indiana. 
On  Thursday  we  drove  to  La  Fayette.  La 
Fayette  is  "on  the  banks  of  the  Wabash," 
that  they  sing  so  much  about,  and  is  a  beau- 
tiful city. 

The  part  of  the  city  that  is  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Wabash  River  is  called  West  La 
Fayette.  It  is  high  and  dry,  a  very  pretty 
place,  with  many  nice  houses.  There  is  a 


102  HIDALGO 

college  there— the  Purdue  University.  They 
have  street  cars  running  to  "West  La  Fayette 
and  on  north  through  the  hills  to  the  Sol- 
diers' Home.  I  went  to  the  Soldiers'  Home 
once  on  the  electric  car.  It  was  a  pleasant 
ride  and  I  would  like  to  go  again. 

The  Wabash  River  flows  past  the  Sol- 
diers' Home,  but  you  cannot  see  the  Sol- 
diers' Home  from  the  river  road.  You  cross 
"  Tecumseh 's  Trail"  near  the  Soldiers' 
Home.  Tecumseh  was  the  chief  of  the  In- 
dians who  fought  in  the  battle  of  Tippeca- 
noe.  The  battle  was  fought  November  7, 
1811.  The  battle  ground  is  seven  miles 
north  of  La  Fayette.  It  was  a  fight  between 
the  Indians  and  the  white  men.  The  In- 
dians were  led  by  ' '  The  Prophet, ' '  a  brother 
of  Tecumseh.  Tecumseh  was  away  from 
home  and  the  Indians  went  into  the  fight 
without  his  knowing  of  it  and  against  his 
wishes.  The  white  men  were  led  by  William 
Henry  Harrison,  afterwards  President  of 
the  United  States. 

"The  Prophet"  told  his  people  that  the 
white  men's  bullets  would  not  hurt  them. 
-He  did  not  tell  them  the  truth  for  they  were 
defeated.  The  white  men  were  camped  for 


103 


HIDALGO  105 

the  night  on  a  little  hill.  About  4  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  before  it  was  light,  the  In- 
dians tried  to  surprise  the  white  men.  The 
soldiers  had  guards  or  pickets  on  the  lookout 
for  the  Indians.  They  woke  the  soldiers 
and  the  battle  began.  ' '  The  Prophet"  stood 
at  one  side,  where  the  bullets  would  not  hit 
him,  and  sang  war  songs  to  encourage  the 
Indians  to  fight.  The  soldiers,  after  a  time, 
drove  them  back  into  the  wet  lands  or  marsh. 
There  were  about  nine  hundred  soldiers  in 
the  fight  and  about  the  same  number  of  In- 
dians. The  Indiana  folks  think  that  there  is 
not  enough  said  in  the  histories  about  the 
battle  of  Tippecanoe.  They  say  the  battle 
was  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  Indiana 
and  the  country  west  of  it.  Indiana  people 
are  proud  of  the  men  who  fought  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Tippecanoe  and  have  named  about 
fifteen  counties  after  men  who  were  in  the 
battle. 

The  ground  where  the  battle  was  fought  is 
owned  by  the  United  States  Government. 
They  have  built  a  high  iron  fence  around  it 
and  have  a  man  to  take  care  of  the  grounds. 
We  have  a  book  called,  ' ;  The  Battle  of  Tip 
pecanoe, ' '  which  we  bought  of  the  blind  man 


106  HIDALGO 

that  wrote  it.  His  name  is  Reed  Beard.  He 
lives  at  La  Fayette,  Indiana.  There  is  a 
town  on  the  Monon  Railroad  near  the  Tippe- 
canoe  battle  ground  called  Battle  Ground. 
We  have  some  little  friends  who  live  in  Bat- 
tle Ground.  Their  names  are  Beulah,  Wil- 
ber  and  Hubert  Jackson.  They  made  us  a 
visit  not  long  ago  and  we  had  a  good  time 
while  they  were  here. 

Friday  morning  we  drove  to  Monon, 
which  is  about  thirty-five  miles  north  of  La 
Fayette.  It  is  prairie  land  until  you  get  to 
Reynolds.  There  we  struck  sand  that  tired 
the  horses  out.  It  was  as  if  they  were  walk- 
ing in  hay.  But  a  rock  road  was  being  built 
which  would  be  very  fine.  The  rock  at  Mo- 
non is  broken  with  what  is  called  a  stone 
crusher.  It  is  run  with  an  engine  and  will 
break  large  rocks  into  small  pieces.  The 
crushed  stone  is  carried  up  by  an  elevator 
and  dropped  into  wagons  or  railroad  cars. 

On  Saturday  we  started  for  Winnemac, 
which  is  thirty  miles  northeast  of  Monon. 
We  stopped  on  the  way  at  one  of  the  farms 
to  see  about  the  sawing  of  some  trees  into 
lumber,  and  had  our  dinners  there.  We 
crossed  the  Tippecanoe  River  at  a  place 


107 


HIDALGO  109 

where  there  was  no  bridge.  People  drive 
through  the  water.  They  call  a  place  of 
that  kind  a  ford.  To  get  to  the  river  we 
drove  down  the  steepest  hill  I  ever  knew 
Papa  to  drive  down,  but  there  was  deep 
sand  and  that  held  the  surrey  back ;  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  sand  I  do  not  see  how  the 
horses  could  have  held  the  surrey  back. 

Tippecanoe  River  is  the  prettiest  river  I 
ever  saw.  It  flows  through  a  hilly  or  broken 
country.  There  are  many  beautiful  homes 
along  the  banks  with  green  fields  and  groves. 
The  timber  is  mostly  hard  wood.  The  river 
winds  in  and  out  through  these  pretty  scenes 
till  it  joins  the  Wabash  River  above  La  Fay- 
ette.  There  are  many  springs  along  the  Tip- 
pecanoe River  which  make  the  water  very 
clear.  We  could  see  the  bottom  anywhere. 
We  could  see  the  fish  away  out  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  river.  Sometimes  men  get  up  into 
the  trees,  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  shoot 
the  fish.  This  is  against  the  law.  A  man 
could  not  shoot  the  fish  while  standing  on 
the  banks  because  the  bullets  would  skip 
along  on  top  of  the  water.  Did  you  ever 
throw  a  stone  so  it  would  skip  along  the  top 
of  the  water  ?  If  they  shoot  from  a  tree  and 


110  HIDALGO 

the  bullet  strikes  near  a  fish  it  will  stun  it  so 
that  a  man  who  is  watching  can  run  and 
catch  the  fish.  We  followed  along  the  river 
bank  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  drove 
down  a  steep  bank  to  the  water.  Star 
thought  he  would  not  go  into  the  water  (he 
was  only  three  and  a  half  years  old),  and 
Hidalgo  seemed  afraid  he  would  catch  cold 
if  he  got  his  feet  wret ;  they  had  never  been 
in  the  water.  Just  then  a  man  who  had 
waded  the  river  helped  us  by  leading  Star 
into  the  water.  After  that  they  were  not 
afraid. 

We  got  to  Winnemac  in  time  for  supper ; 
when  we  make  a  long  drive  we  watch  for 
dinner  and  supper  and  two  or  three  lunches 
besides,  for  it  makes  one  hungry  to  travel 
that  way. 

Winnemac  is  on  the  west  side  of  the  Tip- 
pecanoe  River  and  is  a  very  pretty  place. 
That  part  of  Indiana  has  many  little  towns 
with  now  and  then  a  nice  big  town.  They 
have  a  flowing  well  down  by  the  river. 
Some  folks  think  that  the  water  is  as  good 
for  them  as  medicine  arid  they  say  that  they 
like  to  drink  it.  I  guess  that  there  is  some 
doubt  about  that,  for  the  water  smells  like 
bad  eggs. 


o 


I'll 


HIDALGO  113 

Monday  morning  we  started  back  to  Mo- 
non.  When  we  came  to  the  ford  on  the  Tip- 
pecanoe  River,  we  children  wanted  to  wade 
across  it.  So  we  took  off  most  of  our  clothes 
and  Papa  took  off  his  shoes  and  stockings 
and  rolled  up  his  pantaloons— we  took  hold 
of  hands  as  if  we  were  going  to  "crack  the 
whip"  and  waded  in.  We  children  could 
walk  over  the  stones  better  than  Papa  be- 
cause we  were  used  to  going  bare-footed. 
The  river  was  quite  wide  but  the  water  was 
not  more  than  two  feet  deep.  Oh!  but  that 
was  a  pretty  river,  and  it  was  fun  to  wade 
through  it.  Mama  thought  she  would  rather 
drive,  so  we  left  her  in  the  surrey.  We 
-stopped  for  dinner  just  east  of  Monon, 
where  they  had  promised  to  board  us.  We 
put  our  team  in  the  barn  on  one  of 
Grandpa's  farms,  which  is  a  little  nearer 
town  and  back  from  the  gravel  road  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile.  The  first  night  we  were 
there  one  of  the  men  at  the  farm,  where  the 
horses  were  kept,  was  sick  and  came  down 
stairs.  Before  going  back  to  bed  he  opened 
the  door  and  looked  out.  Just  then  he  heard 
horses  running.  He  went  to  see  what  was 
the  matter,  and  found  Hidalgo  and  Star 
running  around  with  their  halter  straps 


114  HIDALGO 

dragging.  He  found  the  barn  door  shut  and 
made  up  his  mind  that  horse  thieves  had 
been  there  and  had  been  frightened  away. 
They  are  used  to  horse  thieves  around  there. 
They  caught  the  horses  and  put  them  back 
in  the  barn  and  nailed  the  door  shut.  Then 
they  kept  watch  until  morning. 

The  next  day  when  they  told  us  about  it, 
Papa  brought  the  horses  over  to  where  we 
were  boarding.  He  slept  with  one  eye  open 
that  night.  He  thought  the  horse  thieves 
might  come  back  again. 

About  2  o'clock  the  next  morning,  just 
before  the  moon  went  down,  we  heard  the 
dogs  at  our  house  barking  and  the  dog  at 
the  farm  where  our  horses  had  been  the 
night  before,  was  barking  too. 

Papa  called  to  the  man  that  we  were 
boarding  with  and  told  him  he  thought  the 
horse  thieves  had  come  and  to  get  him  the 
gun.  I  was  wide  awake  at  once  and  told 
them  that  I  wanted  to  see  the  horse  thieves 
too. 

We  looked  out  of  the  window  and  saw  a 
man  on  horseback  stop  in  front  of  the  house. 
We  thought  sure  that  he  was  waiting  for  an- 
other man  to  bring  out  our  horses.  Papa 


115 


HIDALGO  117 

hurried  and  just  as  lie  opened  the  door  the 
man  started  his  horse  into  a  gallop. 

We  went  to  the  barn  and  found  our  horses 
were  all  right.  We  then  went  to  another 
house  a  little  nearer  town  and  told  the  man 
to  see  if  his  horse  had  been  stolen.  The  man 
said  that  his  horse  was  there  and  that  he 
had  watched  the  man  on  horseback,  while 
he  was  in  front  of  his  house,  and  that  he 
seemed  to  be  waiting  for  some  one  to  come 
from  where  our  horses  had  been  the  night 
before.  After  awhile  one  of  the  girls  where 
we  were  staying  heard  some  one  back  in  the 
field  make  a  signal  whistle;  she  thought  he 
was  calling  the  man  Papa  had  seen.  We 
locked  our  stable  door  and  the  next  day  we- 
took  our  horses  to  the  livery  stable  for 
safety. 

That  day  a  man  came  along  on  horseback 
following  horse  thieves.  Papa  told  him  what 
kind  of  horse  the  man  had  who  was  there  in 
the  night,  and  how  its  feet  sounded  when  it 
galloped:  something  like  "tick  tackle,  tick 
tackle."  "Yes,"  said  the  man,  "that  was 
my  horse.-  He  could  take  that  gait  and  keep 
it  all  day." 

The  man  went  home  and  got  a  team  and 


118  HIDALGO 

buggy,  and  lie  and  a  man  who  knew  the  road 
that  the  horse  thieves  traveled,  started  in  the 
evening  towards  Winnemac.  They  drove 
about  twenty  miles  and  one  of  their  horses 
got  sick ;  and  then  they  drove  the  twenty 
miles  back  and  the  horse  died.  What  do  you 
think  of  that  way  of  treating  a  sick  horse? 

The  man  never  found  his  stolen  horse  but 
they  have  broken  up  that  band  of  horse 
thieves.  They  had  a  regular  road  with 
friends  along  it,  I  am  glad  they  did  not  get 
Hidalgo  and  Star. 

The  next  Saturday  we  went  back  to  Win- 
nemac; we  forded  the  Tippecanoe  Kiver 
again  and  when  we  came  to  the  bridge  across 
the  Tippecanoe  Eiver  south  of  Winnemac, 
we  found  some  men  putting  a  floor  on  the 
bridge.  They  had  taken  up  all  the  old  floor 
and  did  not  have  enough  lumber  for  the  new 
one  and  about  sixteen  feet  of  the  bridge  was 
open.  Papa  carried  our  satchels  and  wraps 
and  Ruth  and  Wendell  over,  but  I  took  hold 
of  the  side  rails  and  walked  across  the  iron 
pieces  that  the  floor  is  laid  on.  And  then  I 
went  back  to  drive  through  the  river  with 
Papa.  Mama  was  afraid  for  me  to  crawl 
across  the  hole  in  the  bridge  alone,  because 


119 


HIDALGO  121 

the  bridge  was  so  high  and  the  water  so 
deep.  But  I  always  could  climb  almost  any- 
where. 

Last  summer,  though,  I  got  a  fall ;  I  tried 
to  go  across  from  the  roof  of  our  carriage 
porch  to  the  porch  roof,  and  I  overbalanced 
and  had  to  jump.  It  was  fifteen  and  one 
half  feet  to  the  side  walk.  I  struck  on  my 
feet  and  rolled  over  on  the  gravel  road.  I 
thought  my  fingers  and  my  legs  were  broken, 
but  they  were  not.  I  had  to  use  crutches  for 
a  long  time,  as  it  jammed  my  ankle  so  that 
it  was  black  and  blue. 

Well,  Papa  and  I  drove  down  a  sideling 
bank  to  the  water  and  I  thought  the  surrey 
would  turn  over  before  we  got  down  that 
bank,  but  it  didn't.  Then  we  drove  into 
the  river,  that  looked  as  if  it  was  a  foot 
deep,  from  the  bridge,  because  the  water 
was  so  clear,  and  it  was  so  deep  that  it 
frightened  the  horses,  and  it  frightened  me 
a  little,  too.  I  kept  crawling  up  till  I  had 
my  feet  on  the  seat,  and  the  water  nearly 
got  me  there,  for  it  came  up  to  the  cushions. 

The  next  Monday  morning  we  got  up 
early  and  had  the  horses  fed  and  hitched 
before  breakfast,  and  while  we  were  eating 


122  HIDALGO 

breakfast  it  began  to  rain,  so  we  had  them 
unhitched.  Tuesday  morning  we  got  up 
early  again  and  hitched  up  before  break- 
fast, and  while  we  were  eating  breakfast  it 
began  to  rain  as  it  had  Monday  morning, 
Our  friends  wanted  us  to  stay,  but  we  finally 
put  the  side  curtains  on  the  surrey  and 
started.  We  had  to  carry  our  things  over 
the  bridge  again  and  ford  the  river.  The 
bank  of  the  river  on  the  side  where  we  went 
down  was  so  steep  that  it  looked  as  if  the 
surrey  would  upset  on  top  of  the  horses. 

We  had  not  gone  very  far  until  it  cleared 
up,  and  it  was  nice  for  a  while.  But  by 
and  by  it  rained  very  hard,  and  we  drove 
into  a  big  barn.  We  thought  that  we  would 
get  to  Monticello  for  dinner,  but  as  it  was 
then  about  dinner  time  we  asked  the  lady 
at  the  house  to  get  some  dinner  for  us,  and 
we  had  a  good  dinner  there.  After  a  while 
it  cleared  up  and  we  started  again.  Just 
before  we  came  to  Monticello  we  saw  about 
a  dozen  squirrels  in  the  trees  near  a  house. 
I  guess  the  man  must  have  watched  so  that 
no  one  would  shoot  any  of  them. 

Monticello  is  the  county  seat  of  White 
County,  Indiana.  You  would  have  to  drive 


PQ 


123 


HIDALGO  125 

all  day  to  get  across  White  County,  it  is 
such  a  large  county.  The  Tippecanoe 
River  runs  along  the  east  side  of  Monticello, 
which  is  a  beautiful  little  city  with  paved 
streets  and  pleasant  homes.  As  we  came 
through  Brookston  we  saw,  in  a  pasture,  two 
pet  deer  and  some  "tame"  wild  geese.  We 
drove  fifty-eight  miles  that  day  to  get  back 
to  our  stopping  place  northwest  of  La  Fay- 
ette.  We  stayed  about  a  week  with  our 
friends  at  that  place,  and  Papa  attended  to 
some  business. 

Hidalgo  is  just  like  a  Gipsy  horse.  Wher- 
ever we  visited  we  would  let  him  run  loose  on 
the  road  and  eat  grass  and  rest,  and  have  a 
good  time.  But  Star  came  near  giving  us 
trouble.  He  was  out  with  Hi  and  he  made 
a  break  for  home.  The  man  at  the  next 
house  caught  him. 

When  we  started  for  home  the  lady  gave 
me  some  guinea  eggs  and  told  me  to  put 
them  under  a  setting  hen  when  I  got  home. 
AVe  had  started  and  were  down  the  road  a 
little  way  when  we  saw  a  guinea,  and  Papa 
always  laughs  at  me  because  I  said,  ' '  Good 
bye,  old  guinea  hen ;  thank  you  for  the 
guinea  eggs." 


126  HIDALGO 

some  shells  and  a  mess  and  no  eggs.  We 
stayed  all  night  with  our  friends  at  Talbot, 
Indiana,  that  night.  Talbot  is  about  four 
miles  east  of  the  Illinois  line  and  is  thirty- 
five  miles  east  of  Paxton,  so  it  was  not  much 
of  a  drive  to  get  home  the  next  day.  When 
we  came  to  where  we  crossed  over  into 
Illinois,  Papa  said,  "Look  out,  now,  for  a 
bump ;  we  are  going  to  cross  the  state  line. ' ' 
We  said  that  we  did  not  see  the  line.  Then 
Papa  told  us  that  we  could  not  see  the  line, 
that  it  was  just  the  place  where  Indiana  quit 
and  Illinois  began.  It  was  hard  for  us  to 
understand  about  states,  counties,  townships 
and  sections,  but  Papa  can  make  anything 
pretty  plain  to  us.  He  said  that  he  would 
turn  it  around  for  us  and  begin  with  a  farm, 
then  tell  us  about  sections,  townships,  coun- 
ties and  states.  He  asked  us  first,  "Do  you 
see  that  house  and  barn  over  there?"  We 
told  him  that  we  did.  He  said,  "A  farmer 
lives  there;  he  has  fields  of  corn,  of  oats 
and  hay,  and  pastures  for  his  cattle,  horses, 
sheep  and  hogs.  That  is  a  farm.  Then," 
he  said,  "you  know  that  we  cross  a  road 
every  mile.  A  piece  of  land  that  has  a  road 
on  each  side  of  it  is  a  section  of  land,  and 


This  is  Where  I  got  a  Fall. 
127 


HIDALGO  129 

there  are  640  acres  of  land  in  a  section." 
We  did  not  find  a  road  on  every  side  of  a 
section  in  Indiana,  though,  because  they 
made  the  roads  before  the  land  was  meas- 
ured into  sections. 

Then  he  told  us  that  it  takes  thirty-six 
sections  to  make  a  township;  thirty-six 
sections  in  a  square  makes  a  township  six 
miles  each  way.  They  give  each  township 
a  name,  but  sometimes  they  take  more  than 
one  township  and  give  it  a  name.  They 
call  a  township  that  has  a  name  a  town.  The 
town  of  Fatten,  that  we  live  in,  has  one 
township  and  part  of  another  in  it.  It  is 
six  miles  one  way  and  ten  miles  the  other. 
The  people  in  a  town  vote  for  men  to  be 
the  officers  of  the  town.  The  men  who  are 
elected  attend  to  the  business  of  the  town, 
take  care  of  the  roads  and  attend  to  build- 
ing the  bridges  arid  such  things.  Then 
there  are  a  number  of  townships  in  a 
county.  The  people  living  in  a  county 
elect  men  to  attend  to  the  business  of 
the  county.  There  are  a  great  many 
counties  in  a  state.  There  is  no  reg- 
ular number  of  townships  in  a  county  and 
no  regular  number  of  counties  in  a  state. 


130  HIDALGO 

Some  counties  and  some  states  are  larger 
than  others.  The  people  living  in  a  state 
elect  their  state  officers,  and  laws  are  made 
by  men  who  are  elected  for  that  purpose. 
There  are  forty-five  states  now,  and  all  the 
states  together  have  business  that  they  are 
all  interested  in,  so  we  have  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  there  are  officers 
elected  by  each  state  who  join  together  and 
make  laws  for  the  United  States.  The 
United  States  government  can  do  business 
with  other  countries  just  as  if  it  was  only 
one  state.  When  we  got  home  Papa  said 
that  the  team  had  traveled  545  miles  on  that 
trip  through  Indiana. 

I  have  been  to  Indiana  so  many  times  that 
I  know  a  good  many  people  there.  There 
is  one  place  in  Indiana  that  I  would  rather 
visit  than  'most  any  other,  and  that  is  at 
Round  Grove,  which  is  northwest  of  La 
Fayette.  We  always  stay  at  Mr.  Ford's 
when  we  visit  that  place.  Mr.  Demmerle, 
who  lives  there,  has  tame  rabbits  of  all 
colors  and  fan-tailed  pigeons  and  common 
pigeons,  and  two  or  three  dogs.  I  go  to 
Mr.  Demmerle 's  and  stay  in  the  field  with 
him  nearly  all  day.  He  knows  a  great  deal 
about  animals  and  birds. 


HIDALGO  131 

Papa  and  I  were  in  Indiana  April  10th. 
We  saw  a  gray  ground  squirrel  that  some 
boys  had  found  while  digging  in  the  sand. 
This  ground  squirrel  was  fast  asleep  and 
could  not  be  wakened.  I  did  not  know  that 
ground  squirrels  hibernated  as  bears  do 
until  I  saw  this  one.  He  was  rolled  up  so 
nicely  you  could  have  played  ball  with  him. 
The  boys  were  going  to  keep  him  until  he 
woke  up  and  then  try  to  tame  him. 

Papa  says  the  reason  ground  squirrels 
are  so  bright  and  lively  in  the  summer  is 
because  they  have  had  plenty  of  sleep,  and 
that  when  we  children  get  plenty  of  sleep 
we  are  brighter  and  better  natured.  I 
think  I  can  get  along,  though,  without 
sleeping  all  winter  as  bears  and  squir- 
rels do. 

Ruth  and  I  often  go  to  Indiana  with  Papa, 
but  Wendell  has  not  been  with  him  very 
much.  He  would  a  little  rather  stay  with 
his  Mama.  He  is  beginning  to  take  his  turn 
now,  though.  One  time  Ruth  went  with 
Papa  to  La  Fayette,  and  when  they  started 
out  to  the  farms  northwest  of  La  Fayette 
it  was  so  late  and  the  roads  were  so  muddy 
that  it  got  very  dark  before  they  got  to 
their  stopping  place.  It  was  so  dark  they 


132  HIDALGO 

could  not  see  the  horse  they  were  driving, 
but  Ruth  did  not  make  any  fuss.  She  only 
said,  "I  would  not  have  come  with  you, 
but  in  the  morning  I  would  have  called 
you."  She  always  wants  Papa  the  first 
thing  when  she  wakes  up  in  the  morning. 
They  got  there  all  right,  but  there  was  one 
little  bridge  that  Papa  had  worried  about, 
for  it  was  very  narrow  and  had  no  railing. 

Last  spring  Papa  and  I  went  to  Monon, 
Indiana,  and  while  we  were  there  some  men 
were  going  to  fish  with  a  seine ;  so  we 
stayed  over  and  went  with  them.  We  went 
away  up  the  Monon  River  to  where  the 
dredge  ditch  joins  it.  The  Monon  is  only  a 
small  river. 

"We  fished  most  of  the  time  in  the  river 
and  that  was  where  we  had  the  best  luck. 
When  we  fished  in  the  dredge  ditch  our 
seine  caught  on  rocks  or  something  every 
little  while  and  the  men  would  have  to 
dive  down  and  loosen  it.  We  caught  sticks 
and  stones  and  barb  wire  that  day,  and  we 
caught  a  good  many  fish  and  about  twenty 
soft-shelled  turtles.  When  the  men  caught 
turtles  they  would  cut  holes  in  the  edges 
of  their  shells  and  string  them  on  strings. 


HIDALGO  133 

The  turtle  that  was  smart  enough  to  catcli 
a  man  would  pretty  nearly  get  even  with 
that  man,  and  you  ought  to  have  heard  him 
yell.  The  man  yelled  and  the  turtle  pinched. 
I  was  in  the  water  all  day.  The  men  were 
afraid  that  I  would  get  drowned,  but  I 
stayed  near  Papa  and  kept  hold  of  the  pull- 
ing ropes,  and  when  it  was  too  deep  I  would 
cling  to  the  ropes.  When  we  got  through 
fishing  they  made  eleven  piles  of  fish  as  even 
as  they  could.  Then  one  man  went  behind 
a  tree  and  the  man  with  the  fish  would  lay 
his  hands  on  a  pile  of  fish  and  say,  "Who 
gets  these  fish?"  And  the  man  behind 
the  tree  would  name  some  one.  They  kept 
on  that  way  until  all-  had  some  fish.  We 
gave  our  fish  to  the  man  we  were  staying! 
with.  The  other  men  took  the  turtles  and 
they  were  going  to  have  a  turtle  soup  and 
fish  dinner  at  the  hotel  the  next  day,  but  we 
could  not  stay  to  help  them  eat  it. 

We  fished  so  late  that  we  missed  the 
evening  train,  so  we  waited  for  the  eleven 
o'clock  train,  which  was  late,  and  we  did 
not  get  to  La  Fayette  till  one  o'clock.  Papa 
told  the  hotel  clerk  to  call  us  in  time  for  the 
train  that  goes  north  at  six  o'clock,  and  we 


134  HIDALGO 

went  back  to  Brookston  on  that  train.  The 
train  we  came  down  on  in  the  night  was  a 
fast  train  and  did  not  stop  at  Brookston. 
Papa  was  pretty  tired  for  a  few  days,  but  it 
did  not  hurt  me  any.  I  got  more  sleep  than 
he  did,  though,  for  lie  let  me  sleep  at  Monon 
and  carried  me  into  the  train.  After  we 
got  home  the  skin  peeled  off  of  Papa's 
neck  and  shoulders  and  off  my  neck  and 
back,  because  we  got  sunburned  while  fish- 
ing. I  had  my  underclothing  on,  but  the 
sun  blistered  in  spite  of  that.  Mama  was 
not  very  sorry  for  us,  because  we  had  stayed 
to  go  fishing  and  did  not  get  home  as  soon 
as  she  expected  us. 


HIDALGO  135 


PART  IX. 

We  did  not  go  on  any  long  trips  in  the 
surrey  the  year  that  Hidalgo  was  nine  years 
old,  because  we  were  building  our  house,  and 
that  took  all  summer.  But  Papa  takes  care 
of  a  good  many  farms,  and  so  we  drive  a 
great  deal  every  summer. 

Grandpa  drives  Hi  a  good  deal  in  the 
summer  time  around  town  and  in  the  coun- 
try. He  does  not  play  in  harness  with 
Grandpa  as  he  does  with  other  people  when 
they  drive  him.  Sometimes  he  forgets, 
though ;  when  a  big  dog  runs  at  him  he  will 
try  to  get  a  kick  at  the  dog  or  try  to  outrun 
him. 

Grandpa  says  that  he  and  Hidalgo  are 
good  friends  and  that  Hi  will  not  be  very 
bad  with  him.  One  time  Grandpa  was  driv- 
ing Hi  down  the  only  steep  hill  we  have 
around  here,  and  something  about  the  har- 
ness broke  and  let  the  shafts  come  down  on 
to  the  ground.  Hidalgo  stopped  the  buggy 
by  letting  it  run  up  against  him.  Grandpa 


136  HIDALGO 

thought  that  if  it  had  been  any  other  horse 
he  might  have  been  thrown  out  and  hurt  or 
killed. 

I  have  two  bad  things  to  tell  about  Hi- 
dalgo. These  happened  last  winter.  Mama 
and  a  lady  had  some  errands  to  do,  so  they 
took  Hi  and  the  cutter.  They  took  a  boy 
to  drive,  so  they  would  not  have  to  tie  him 
up  every  time  they  went  into  a  house.  When 
they  were  driving  up  to  a  house  where  Hi 
was  acquainted  he  broke  into  a  run,  and 
the  boy  could  not  hold  him.  Mama  took  the 
lines  and  stopped  him.  The  boy  had  had 
enough  driving  and  would  not  drive  any 
more.  Papa  said  that  he  saw  Hidalgo  was 
not  ] (leased  with  the  hoy's  driving  when 
they  started.  Hidalgo  has  always  been  al- 
lowed to  do  as  he  pleased  because  he  pleased 
to  do  right.  And  now,  since  he  is  older,  he 
will  not  al-low  strangers  to  boss  him,  espe- 
cially boys. 

The  other  bad  thing  that  Hidalgo  did  was 
when  Grandpa  and  Uncle  Dave  were  driving 
him  to  the  sleigh.  They  were  going  pretty 
fast  and  the  shafts  came  loose  from  the 
sleigh.  Hidalgo  went  on  with  the  shafts 
and  the  sleigh  upset  and  pitched  Grandpa 


HIDALGO  137 

over  Uncle  Dave.  Grandpa  lit  on  his  nose 
on  the  ice.  They  were  not  hurt  much.  Hi 
ran  down  to  a  barn  where  there  were  some 
horses.  Uncle  Dave  got  him  and  tied  the 
shafts  on  with  a  strap  and  brought  the  sleigh 
home.  I  teased  Uncle  Dave  because  he  got 
upset,  for  he  is  a  good  driver.  But  when 
the  shafts  come  off  the  driver  gets  left. 


138  HIDALGO 


PART  X. 

We  never  shot  a  gun  out  of  the  buggy, 
with  Hidalgo,  until  the  summer  he  was  ten 
years  old.  He  does  not  like  it  very  well  and 
seems  to  say:  "My!  Oh,  I  don't  like  that 
awful  noise  right  behind  me ;  but  although 
it  makes  me  jump  I  will  stand  it  if  you 
think  it  is  right."  Papa  says  he  would  not 
let  anyone  else  have  him  to  go  hunting  with, 
for  Hi  would  not  mind  another  person  and 
might  make  trouble. 

Papa  can  shoot  quails  or  chickens  that 
fly  over  or  get  up  along  the  road  while  the 
horse  is  trotting.  His  gun  is  a  heavy,  dou- 
ble-barreled, No.  10,  Fox  gun.  It  breaks 
or  opens  at  the  side.  It  is  too  heavy  for  me 
to  shoot,  but  he  can  handle  it  easily  and  do 
a  great  deal  of  fancy  shooting  with  it. 

Papa  bought  me  a  single-barrel,  breech- 
loading  gun  last  fall.  It  is  a  self-ejector 
and  No.  12  gauge.  He  had  them  cut 
the  barrel  off  so  as  to  make  it  twenty- 
seven  inches  long,  and  they  cut  an  inch  and 


HIDALGO  139 

a  half  off  of  the  stock,  so  that  I  could  han- 
dle it.  The  first  time  I  shot  it  1  had  in  a  big 
load  and  It  knocked  me  flat.  Then  I  tried 
a  smaller  load  and  shot  at  a  snipe.  Two 
fell  that  time,  the  snipe  and  myself.  I  use 
still  smaller  loads  now  and  they  are  all 
right ;  I  have  them  load  my  shells  with  two 
drachms  of  powder.  I  can't  quite  swing 
the  gun  to  shoot  on  the  wing,  but  I  think 
I  can  handle  it  all  right  next  summer. 

Sometimes  when  Papa  and  I  go  to  the 
farms  we  shoot  quails  and  rabbits.  One 
trip  Papa  shot  eight  quails  out  of  nine  shots. 
I  shot  one  quail  "straight."  His  quails 
were  flying,  though,  and  my  quail  was  in 
"the  hedge.  I  only  go  hunting  when  Papa 
goes.  He  says  one  boy  at  a  time  is  enough 
for  hunting,  and  he  does  not  want  me  to  go 
with  other  boys,  because  one  of  us  might 
shoot  the  other.  He  does  not  like  to  see 
boys  get  guns  because  they  start  out  and 
kill  whatever  they  see.  He  says  he  will  al- 
ways be  sorry  because,  when  a  boy,  he  shot 
a  bird  while  it  was  sitting  on  its  nest. 

I  want  to  tell  you  how  Papa  shot  the 
prairie  chickens.  We  were  at  one  of  the 
farms,  and  just  about  dark  the  man  said  to 


140  HIDALGO 

me,  "There  are  some  prairie  chickens  over 
in  the  pasture."  He  counted  five.  I  told 
Papa  and  we  took  our  guns  and  sneaked 
down  along  the  hedge  until  we  got  close 
enough.  Papa  whispered  for  me  to  take 
the  one  standing  up  and  he  would  take  the 
other  one.  I  said,  "I  can't  get  my  gun  up 
high  enough  to  shoot  over  the  hedge,  and  I 
can't  shoot  through  it,  and  I  can't  shoot 
anyway,  for  I  tremble  so. ' '  He  said :  l '  Oh, 
shoot;  you've  got  the  buck  ague."  (That 
is  what  they  call  it  when  a  fellow  tries  to 
shoot  at  a  deer  and  cannot,  because  he  is 
so  excited).  But  I  would  not  shoot  and  he 
went  a  little  further,  where  he  could  get 
the  two  he  saw  in  line,  and  "Bang!"  went 
his  gun,  and  he  said :  ' '  Well,  now,  Howard, 
what  do  you  think;  they  are  only  old 
dry  bunches  of  thistles."  I  said:  "It's  a 
good  thing  I  didn't  shoot,  or  I  would  have 
wasted  my  load. ' '  We  looked  at  the  thistles 
in  daytime  and  they  looked  like  prairie 
chickens  even  in  daylight. 

The  snipe  and  the  duck  will  soon  be  here, 
and  I  expect  to  shoot  some  this  spring.  We 
have  jack  snipe,  sand  snipe,  plover,  yellow- 
legged  snipe  and  some  other  kinds.  I  am 


HIDALGO  141 

afraid  it  will  be  -some  time  before  I  can 
shoot  a  jack  snipe,  for  they  hide  so  they 
cannot  be  seen  until  they  fly.  When  they 
fly  they  make  such  a  crooked  path  that  the 
shot  cannot  follow  them ;  anyway  they  are 
hard  to  hit. 

One  day  Papa  was  out  at  one  of  the  farms 
helping  to  survey  for  a  tile  ditch.  Mr.  John- 
son was  going  to  help,  and  his  little  boy, 
Willie,  five  years  old,  wanted  to  go  along. 
Papa  said  to  let  him  go,  as  he  had  rubber 
boots  on.  So  he  went  down  in  the  field  with 
the  men.  They  let  him  carry  the  back  end 
of  the  chain  they  measured  with,  and  his 
father  carried  the  front  end  of  the  chain  and 
drove  stakes  every  four  rods.  Papa  helped 
the  surveyor  and  he  carried  his  gun  with 
him  because  there  were  a  good  many  ducks 
flying.  Papa  shot  at  some  ducks  as  they 
flew  over.  When  he  caught  up  with  Willie 
he  said  to  Papa,  "Did  you  shoot  any?" 
Papa  told  him  that  he  did  not.  The  little 
boy  said,  "That's  a  funny  gun."  Papa 
said,  "They  generally  blame  me  when  I 
miss  anything,  instead  of  the  gun."  Papa 
gave  Willie  twenty-five  cents  and  told  him 
to  remember  that  that  was  the  first  money 


142  HIDALGO 

he  had  ever  earned.  He  did  his  part  as  well 
as  a  man  could  have  done  it. 

When  Willie  was  only  a  little  over  four 
years  old  he  tried  to  snap  the  neck-yoke  strap 
to  the  horses'  harness  when  they  were  hitch- 
ing them  to  the  wagon.  He  could  not  reach 
high  enough.  He  said,  "Ain't  it  strange 
that  I  don't  get  big  any  faster?"  And  he 
was  ready  to  cry  about  it. 

I  will  tell  you  about  another  time  we 
were  out  at  a  farm  to  see  about  fixing  a 
windmill  that  was  out  of  order.  They  use 
windmills  here  to  pump  water  out  of  the 
deep  wells.  We  were  late  and  the  lady  hur- 
ried up  supper  for  us.  It  was  warm 
weather,  so  she  set  the  table  out  in  the  shade 
of  the  trees.  There  was  a  nice,  fresh  breeze 
out  there.  The  lady  had  just  taken  some 
bread  from  the  oven,  so  w7e  had  fresh  bread. 
The  butter  was  just  out  of  the  churn,  and  so 
we  had  fresh  butter.  They  had  been  butch- 
ering, and  we  had  fresh  meat,  and  just  be- 
fore supper  she  had  sent  the  children  to 
dig  some  potatoes,  so  we  had  fresh  potatoes; 
and  as  we  were  taking  our  places  at  the  table 
the  lady  said  to  the  girls:  "There  is  no 
milk  for  the  coffee ;  run,  quick,  one  of  you 


143 


HIDALGO  145 

girls,  and  milk  the  cow ;  don 't  wait  to  milk 
all;  bring  what  we  need,"  and  so  we  had 
fresh  milk.  You  don't  get  things  as  fresh 
as  that  in  Chicago,  do  you? 

The  country  is  the  place  to  get  good  things 
to  eat.  When  I  go  to  Grandma's  and  stay 
a  week  I  fatten  right  up.  Threshing  time  is 
the  best.  There  are  about  twenty-five  men 
needed  to  help  with  the  threshing,  and  they 
always  have  extra  good  things  to  eat  then. 
Thanksgiving  dinner  is  nowhere.  Most 
boys  like  to  have  the  threshers  come,  but  I 
know  some  boys  who  were  talking  about 
threshing,  and  one  of  them  said,  "I  wish 
the  threshers  would  come."  The  other 
said,  "I  don't,  because  we  would  have  to 
wait." 

When  the  first  snow  fell  last  fall  Papa 
said  for  all  to  get  sleds  and  have  a  ride. 
Thirteen  children  tried  to  get  on  five  sleds. 
Two  of  the  largest  sleds  were  home-made. 
Papa  hitched  Hidalgo  to  the  sleds.  The 
thirteenth  boy  couldn't  stay  on,  so  Papa 
put  him  on  Hi 's  back ;  but  Hi  said,  ; '  Thir- 
teen is  an  unlucky  number, ' '  and  kicked  up, 
so  the  boy  had  to  hang  on  to  the  sleds.  I 
think  the  crupper  hurt  Hi's  tail  when  the 
boy  was  on  his  back. 


146  HIDALGO 

We  have  lots  of  fun  sleigh  riding  with 
Hidalgo.  The  boys  try  to  catch  on  to  the 
cutter,  but  it  is  a  pretty  smart  boy  wlio 
catches  us.  One  time  Mama  was  driving 
Hidalgo  to  the  cutter  and  there  was  a  boy 
waiting  on  the  farther  sidewalk  on  a  cross 
street.  Hidalgo  saw  that  he  could  not  dodge 
past  the  boy  because  the  road  was  narrow, 
so  he  turned  up  a  cross  street  so  quickly 
that  he  pretty  nearly  upset  the  sleigh.  The 
boy  did  not  get  on. 

One  time  Hidalgo  was  loose  about  the 
barn.  He  made  a  great  big,  stiff-legged 
jump.  He  whirled  around  as  he  jumped 
and  fell  flat.  I  guess  that  he  didn't  want 
us  to  know  that  he  fell  while  he  was  trying 
to  be  funny,  for  he  went  right  to  rolling 
just  as  if  he  had  lain  down  on  purpose  to 
roll. 

For  two  or  three  days  we  have  been  mark- 
ing, as  they  do  at  school,  for  our  behavior 
at  the  table.  We  mark  Papa  and  Mama, 
too.  When  we  get  ten  good  marks  we  get 
a  red  star,  and  when  we  get  ten  red  stars 
we  get  some  book  that  we  want.  Papa  thinks 
this  plan  works  well.  He  does  not  get  any 
bad  marks,  though,  for  if  he  spills  his  coffee 
or  puts  his  elbows  on  the  table,  or  is  cross, 


a 


147 


HIDALGO  149 

Ruth  gives  him  a  good  mark,  saying,  ' '  This 
is  only  the  first  time,  and  the  first  time  does 
not  count." 

Papa  thinks  there  ought  not  to  be  rules 
for  little  folks  and  none  for  big  folks.  A 
long  time  ago  Mama  said  that  we  children 
could  not  have  coffee  except  at  breakfast. 
She  said  it  was  not  good  for  us.  We  said, 
"Papa  has  it,"  and  Papa  said,  "That  is 
right ;  if  it  is  not  good  for  you  it  is  not  good 
for  me,  and  you  can  have  coffee  when  I 
have  it."  So  he  quit  using  coffee  except  at 
breakfast,  and  if  he  has  it  at  any  other  meal 
we  can  have  it  if  we  want  it. 

One  time  there  was  a  man,  who  taught 
school  here,  whipped  some  boys  for  smok- 
ing, and  while  he  was  whipping  them  he 
was  smoking  a  cigar.  Another  man  who 
lives  here  told  his  boy  that  he  would  whip 
him  if  he  caught  him  swearing  again ;  and 
while  he  was  scolding  the  boy  he  was  swear- 
ing himself.  I  suspect  the  boy  swore  some 
more  when  he  got  out  back  of  the  barn. 

One  day  Papa  said  to  us,  "Did  you  see 
that  dead  cat  on  the  road  as  you  came 
home?"  We  said,  "Yes."  "Well,"  he 
said,  "I  would  not  carrv  that  old  dead  cat 


1.50  HIDALGO 

home;  of  course  you  could  if  you  wanted 
to."  We  said  that  we  would  not  touch  the 
old,  dirty  thing.  Then  he  said,  "You  hear 
bad  words  at  school  and  on  the  street,  don't 
you?"  We  said,  "Yes."  Then  he  told  us 
not  to  bring  any  of  those  bad  words  home; 
that,  of  course,  we  could,  if  we  wanted  to, 
and  he  could  not  help  it.  He  said  that  it 
was  not  smart  to  use  bad  words ;  that  any- 
body could,  if  they  wanted  to.  He  said  the 
same  thing  about  smoking  and  chewing  to- 
bacco. Some  boys  think  it  is  smart  to 
smoke,  although  it  makes  them  sick. 

Papa  never  punishes  us  for  doing  any- 
thing that  we  do  not  know  is  wrong.  If  we 
say  a  bad  word,  that  we  do  not  know  is 
wrong,  he  is  sorry.  We  are  sorry,  too.  If 
he  asks  us  if  we  did  something  that  was 
wrong,  and  we  say,  "Yes,"  he  does  not 
punish  us,  when  he  finds  out  in  that  way. 
He  says  the  law  will  not  allow  the  court  to 
make  a  man  tell  on  himself,  and  that  some 
papas  say,  "Did  you  do  that?"  and  if  the 
hoy  says,  "Yes,"  he  gets  a  whipping;  and 
if  he  says,  "No,"  he  gets  out  of  it.  So  he 
learns  to  lie  to  save  his  back.  When  we 
say  a  thing  Papa  takes  our  word  for  it,  and 


HIDALGO  151 

will  not  let  any  person  question  our  word. 
He  says  that  it  is  our  business  to  tell  the 
truth.  Papa  can  find  out  about  anything 
pretty  easily,  though.  He  asks  a  few  ques- 
tions, and  the  first  thing  we  know  he  knows 
all  about  it. 

I  cannot  remember  when  Papa  or  Mama 
have  whipped  any  of  us  children.  We  need 
it  bad  enough  sometimes,  and  sometimes, 
when  I  am  bad,  I  wish  they  would  whip  me, 
I  feel  so  cross  and  mean.  They  say  it  would 
be  much  easier  to  whip  than  not  to  whip, 
and  say  it  is  much  harder  to  be  patient  with 
us.  One  gets  sleepy,  tired  or  cross,  and  acts 
mean  and  doesn't  know  why.  As  big  as  I 
am,  I'll  sit  and  cry  about  something  that 
can't  be  helped  and  that  isn't  the  reason 
I  am  crying  at  all— I  just  feel  cross  and 
mean  and  need  a  good  cry. 

AVhen,Mama  was  a  little  girl  she  lived  on 
a  farm.  Her  mama  told  her  that  she  must 
do  a  certain  part  of  the  work  each  day.  In 
the  summer  time,  when  the  teams  were  at 
work  in  the  field,  Mama  would  finish  her  part 
of  getting  things  ready  for  dinner ;  then  she 
could  go  to  the  field  and  ride  one  of  the 
horses  to  the  barn.  She  says  that  she  en- 


152  HIDALGO 

joyed  the  ride  better  because  she  had  earned 
it  by  first  doing  her  work. 

Mama  has  given  us  children  certain  work 
to  do  each  day.  We  boys  are  to  pump  cis- 
tern water  into  the  tank  in  the  attic.  There 
is  a  pump  in  the  basement  and  the  water 
is  forced  up  through  an  iron  pipe.  I  am 
to  pump  one  hundred  strokes  and  Wendell 
is  to  pump  fifty  strokes.  Ruth  is  to  wipe 
the  dishes. 

We  have  other  work  to  do,  but  this  is  to 
be  our  regular  work.  Mama  will  not  allow 
us  boys  to  pump  two  or  three  hundred 
strokes  one  day  and  none  the  next.  She 
wants  us  to  get  into  the  habit  of  working. 


HIDALGO  153 


PART  XI. 

This  is  April  21st.  Hidalgo  is  eleven 
years  old  to-day.  I  will  tell  you  what  we 
have  been  doing  lately.  Papa  said  that  we 
needed  a  room  of  some  kind  for  our  guns 
and  fishing  tackle,  and  we  thought  that  the 
attic  would  be  a  good  place.  So  we  began 
to  plan  it.  Finally  we  thought  a  log  cabin 
in  the  attic  would  be  the  best  thing.  We 
have  been  working  at  it  for  a  month  or  so, 
just  at  odd  times  and  in  the  evenings.  Papa 
said  logs  would  be  too  heavy,  and  he  ordered 
slabs  from  the  sawmill.  Slabs  are  the  first 
and  last  part  of  the  logs  that  are  cut  when 
they  are  sawing  logs  into  boards  or  lumber. 
Slabs  have  the  bark  on  them.  They  are 
from  six  inches  to  fourteen  inches  wide,  and 
in  the  thickest  place  about  four  inches 
through.  We  put  up  some  two-by-four 
pieces  from  the  floor  to  the  roof.  We  nailed 
the  slabs  to  the  pieces  on  the  inside,  and 
some  to  match  them  on  the  outside.  Papa 
fixed  them  so  that  they  do  not  show  that 
they  are  slabs  instead  of  logs. 


154  HIDALGO 

We  left  a  crack  between  the  slabs  and 
nailed  slats  back  of  the  cracks,  and  when 
the  slabs  get  dry  we  will  "chink"  the  cracks 
with  plaster.  We  have  old  windows  that 
have  small  panes  of  glass,  heavy  shutters 
for  the  windows  and  a  strong  door,  so  the 
Indians  cannot  get  in.  On  the  outside  we 
will  only  fix  it  to  look  like  a  log  cabin  on 
two  sides.  On  the  inside  no  one  can  tell 
but  that  it  is  a  real  log  cabin,  for  the  roof 
of  the  house  is  the  roof  of  the  cabin.  We 
will  leave  it  so  the  rafters  will  show.  The 
big  room  of  the  cabin  is  thirteen  by  twenty 
feet,  and  it  has  an  addition  on  one  side  about 
ten  by  ten  feet.  It  is  all  in  one  room  now, 
but  we  will  hang  up  some  curtains  between 
the  rooms.  There  is  an  outside  window 
in  the  little  room  and  an  outside  window 
high  up  in  the  big  room,  and  we  are  putting 
in  two  windows  and  a  door  that  open  into 
the  attic.  Our  house  has  but  one  large  chim- 
ney. The  chimney  is  at  the  end  of  the  big 
room  in  the  log  cabin.  We  are  going  to 
have  an  old-fashioned  fireplace.  We  have 
some  hickory  wood  drying  to  burn  next  win- 
ter. 

We  have  an  old-fashioned  bed,  table  and 


HIDALGO  155 

chairs.  We  went  to  the  gun  shop  and  got 
an  old  flint-lock  musket,  a  set  trigger  rifle 
and  an  old  Colt's  revolver  that  had  to  be 
loaded  with  powder,  ball  and  cap.  We  also 
got  four  little  pistols.  The  man  gave  us  two 
gourds,  one  for  a  dipper  and  one  to  keep 
soft  soap  in.  Since  people  have  found  out 
that  we  want  old  things  for  our  cabin  they 
are  watching  for  things  for  us.  One  man, 
gave  us  the  barrel  of  a  flint-lock  horse  pistol. 
It  was  found  near  town.  It  is  so  badly 
rusted  it  looks  very  old.  It  may  be  more 
than  a  hundred  years  old.  A  man  in  Texas 
said  he  was  going  to  send  us  a  very  old 
gun.  We  do  not  know  him,  but  when  Uncle 
Tom  told  him  what  we  were  doing  he  said 
he  would  give  us  his  old  gun.  We  can  get 
an  old  ox  yoke  and  we  will  hang  that  up  on 
the  outside  of  the  cabin. 

We  will  hang  the  guns  and  other  things 
up  on  the  walls,  and  when  we  go  deer  hunt- 
ing we  will  try  to  get  some  deer  horns  and 
hides.  We  boys  will  sleep  up  there  a  great 
many  times,  and  when  you  come  to  see  us 
you  can  sleep  up  there  if  you  want  to.  Papa 
has  done  every  bit  of  the  work  so  far,  except 
what  we  boys  helped.  He  calls  it ' '  pleasure 


156  HIDALGO 

work."  There  are  electric  lights  in  the 
attic.  The  lights  are  on  long  wires  and  can 
be  carried  where  we  need  them.  We  will 
have  to  use  candles  in  the  cabin  when  we 
get  it  finished. 

We  can  have  fun  up  there.  It  will  be 
nearly  like  camping  out.  We  have  camped 
out  several  times  since  I  was  big  enough  to 
remember.  One  day  last  fall  Papa  had  busi- 
ness to  attend  to  out  in  the  country  about 
twelve  miles.  He  said  he  wanted  to  show 
us  folks  how  he  could  cook  out  of  doors.  So 
we  hitched  Hidalgo  to  the  trap  and  took 
the  gun  and  Fannie  (our  hunting  dog) 
along,  so  we  could  get  some  game  to  cook. 
Papa  put  into  a  box  a  kettle  and  a  coffee 
pot,  bread,  butter,  potatoes,  onions,  salt, 
pepper,  coffee,  knives,  forks  and  spoons.  He 
also  took  an  ax. 

We  started  about  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  when  we  got  about  five  miles 
from  town  a  flock  of  prairie  chickens  flew 
up  from  beside  the  road.  They  lit  over  in 
the  oat  stubble.  Papa  took  the  gun  and  dog 
and  followed  them,  and  in  about  twenty  min- 
utes he  had  shot  three  of  the  young  prairie 
chickens.  They  were  pretty  nearly  full 
grown. 


157 


HIDALGO  159 

We  stopped  in  the  timber  for  dinner.  We 
unhitched  Hidalgo,  watered  him  and  turned 
him  loose  to  eat  his  oats  and  what  grass  he 
wanted.  We  had  brought  a  bucket  of  good 
water  from  the  last  house  we  passed,  to  use 
for  dressing  the  birds,  and  to  cook  with. 
Papa  was  cook  that  day.  He  dressed  the 
game  and  peeled  and  washed  the  potatoes 
and  onions.  After  he  had  made  the  fire  he 
cut  a  green  stick  on  which  to  hang  the  kettle, 
and  put  one  end  of  it  on  a  stump  and  the 
other  on  a  forked  stick  stuck  into  the 
ground.  When  the  game  and  potatoes  and 
onions  were  about  done  he  cut  a  loaf  of 
bread  in  two  and  laid  it  on  top  of  the  meat 
in  the  kettle.  Then  he  set  the  coffee  pot  on 
the  red  coals  and  had  everything  ready  for 
dinner  at  the  same  time.  Mama  thought  it 
was  the  finest  dinner  she  ever  ate,  and  we 
children  ate  so  much  we  did  not  feel  good 
for  a  little  while.  There  was  plenty  left  for 
the  dog,  too. 

Wendell  is  too  young  to  go  to  school,  so 
he  is  with  Papa  at  the  office  at  least  half  of 
the  time.  He  does  not  make  any  trouble 
and  he  does  a  great  many  errands.  One 
evening  they  came  home  late  for  supper,  and 
when  they  were  eating  Wendell  took  a  piece 


160  HIDALGO 

of  cake  that  had  plenty  of  frosting  on  it  and 
said:  "Papa,  will  you  do  something  for 
me!"  Papa  said:  "Maybe  so;  what  is 
it  ? "  Papa  is  always  afraid  to  promise  too 
sure  with  Wendell.  Wendell  said :  ' '  When 
I  eat  this  frosting  off,  will  you  eat  the 
cake ! ' '  Mama  will  not  let  him  eat  the  frost- 
ing and  leave  the  cake.  Papa  would  not 
agree  to  that  bargain,  so  Wendell  had  to 
eat  the  cake,  too. 

What  do  you  think !  We  have  had  a  lot 
of  real  Indians  in  our  back  yard.  You  will 
not  believe  it  until  I  tell  you  how  it  hap- 
pened. Pawnee  Bill's  Wild  West  Show 
had  their  tents  at  the  edge  of  the  town  west 
of  our  house.  There  was  a  Woodman 's  pic- 
nic the  same  day,  so  the  Wild  West  Show 
did  not  have  their  parade  until  after  the 
Woodman  parade.  .  The  Indians  and  cow- 
boys and  Indian  girls  and  lady  riders  sat 
on  their  horses  near  our  house  while  the 
Woodman  parade  was  going  on.  A  horse 
got  frightened  and  upset  the  buggy  and 
threw  the  folks  out.  It  did  not  hurt  them 
very  much,  but  the  horse  ran  away  and  into 
our  back  yard.  The  cowboys  and  Indians 
caught  up  their  lassoes,  which  hung  on  their 


161 


HIDALGO  163 

saddles,  and  they  surrounded  our  lot  quicker 
than  I  can  tell  it.  They  caught  the  horse 
right  beside  our  plum  trees.  Then  the  ripe 
plums  suffered.  The  Indians  picked  some 
and  took  them  out  to  the  girls.  We  did  not 
care  for  their  taking  the  plums.  The  cow- 
boys caught  another  runaway  horse  with 
their  lassoes  that  day. 

Papa  is  trying  to  get  us  boys  to  form  a 
club  to  protect  the  birds.  We  have  all  begun 
to  collect  specimens  of  birds'  eggs,  and  he 
does  not  like  it.  He  has  written  something 
for  us  to  sign.  It  is  all  right,  but  it  may 
spoil  our  egg  collections.  We  have  -a  good 
many  birds  at  our  end  of  town,  for  there  are 
plenty  of  big  trees.  We  heard  a  whip-poor- 
will  one  evening  last  spring.  Papa  said  it 
was  only  the  second  one  he  had  heard  in  this 
part  of  the  country. 

Here  is  a  copy  of  what  Papa  wrote  for 
us  to  sign.  I  do  not  know  whether  all  the 
boys  will  sign  it  or  not,  for  we  have  been 
robbing  birds'  nests  to  get  the  eggs  for  our 
collections,  and  some  of  the  boys  have  air 
guns  and  "shooters,"  and  they  kill  a  good 
many  birds.  Wendell  and  I  are  willing  to 
sign  it.  They  call  our  end  of  town  "West 
Lawn." 


164  HIDALGO 

WEST     LAWN     BIRD     PROTECTIVE     ASSOCIATION. 

We,  the  undersigned,  residents  of  West 
Lawn,  Illinois,  for  the  better  protection  of 
the  songbirds  and  other  harmless  birds  that 
are  not  used  for  food,  and  for  the  protection 
of  the  nests  of  such  birds,  do  hereby  form 
ourselves  into  an  association  under  the  name 
of  the  West  Lawn  Bird  Protective  Associa- 
tion. 

First.  We  agree  we  will,  so  far  as  we 
can,  help  to  enforce  the  laws  in  relation  to 
such  birds  and  their  nests. 

Second.  We  agree  that  we  will  cease  col- 
lecting the  eggs  from  the  nests  of  such  birds, 
and  that  we  will  not,  even  in  play,  shoot  at 
such  birds  with  our  shooters,  air  guns  or 
other  guns,  or  throw  at  them,  and  we  each 
agree  that  we  will  do  our  best  to  keep  the 
other  boys  from  robbing  birds'  nests  or 
shooting  at  birds  as  mentioned. 

Maybe  you  can  get  up  a  bird  protection 
association  and  write  a  paper  like  this  for 
the  boys  to  sign. 

We  were  at  one  of  the  firms  a  few  days 
ago  and  Mr.  Anderson  told  us  that  his  horse 
Billy  had  been  taken  sick  while  in  the  pas- 
ture lot.  He  stayed  in  the  shade  of  the  big 


(^ 

a 


I 


165 


HIDALGO  167 

trees.  They  carried  out  some  straw  for  him 
to  lie  on.  Their  dog  Shep  took  his  place  by 
Billy's  side,  without  anyone  telling  him  to 
do  it,  and  would  not  allow  any  of  the  hogs 
or  cattle  to  come  near  him.  After  a  day  or 
two  Billy  died.  He  died  in  the  night.  In 
the  morning  they  found  that  Shep  had  car- 
ried straw  and  covered  Billy  all  over  except 
his  nose.  When  they  buried  Billy,  Shep 
stayed  on  the  grave  a  day  and  a  night  before 
they  could  get  him  to  come  home.  They  did 
not  know  that  Shep  and  Billy  were  such 
good  friends.  Shep  is  a  nice,  big  dog  and 
is  dark  colored,  as  shepherd  dogs  generally 
are. 

Noma  and  Strand,  who  live  on  our  street 
have  a  St.  Bernard  dog.     They  call  him  • 
' '  Dewey. "    He  is  broken  to  draw  a  wagon, 
and  all  of  us  children  have  had  a  ride  in  the 
wagon. 

Hidalgo  is  not  a  bob-tailed  horse,  although 
you  might  think  so  when  you  see  his  pic- 
ture. He  is  kept  hitched  to  the  buggy  or 
surrey  so  much  of  the  time  in  the  summer 
that  he  whips  out  his  tail  fighting  flies.  A 
bob-tailed  horse  is  one  that  has  had  the  bone 
and  flesh  of  the  tail  cut  off  till  the  horse  has 


168  HIDALGO 

only  a  stump  of  a  tail  left.  Papa  would  not 
own  a  bob-tailed  horse.  He  says  that  style 
of  horse  comes  from  other  countries,  and 
that  since  we  have  the  finest  driving  horses 
in  the  world  he  will  stick  to  them  and  not 
follow  some  foreign  style.  It  is  very  cruel 
to  cut  a  horse 's  tail  off.  It  is  not  so  bad  for 
the  horse  when  he  is  young  and  stylish,  but 
when  he  gets  old  and  poor  and  perhaps  has 
a  master  who  will  not  furnish  him  with  a 
fly  net  in  summer,  he  will  be  in  a  bad  fix. 
There  is  a  law  in  Illinois  against  l '  dock- 
ing" the  horses'  tails  in  this  way.  It  might 
make  me  laugh  to  see  a  horse  wiggle  his 
poor  little  stump  of  a  tail  if  it  did  not  make 
me  feel  so  sorry  for  him. 

Hidalgo  is  not  a  good  riding  horse.  Papa 
does  not  want  him  to  do  anything  but  walk 
and  trot,  and  a  trotting  horse's  trot  is  as 
bouncy  as  the  "trot,  trot  to  Boston"  Papa 
gives  us  on  his  knee,  so  Papa  bought  Earl 
Canady's  old  "Ned"  for  us  when  Earl 
moved  to  Clinton,  Illinois.  Ned  is  a  good, 
easy-riding  horse.  He  can  walk,  trot,  pace, 
single-foot,  lope  or  gallop.  We  children  ride 
him  about  all  day  these  nice  days.  Ruth 
rides  on  our  saddle.  Mama  is  going  to 


169 


HIDALGO  171 

make  her  a  dress  with  "divided  skirts." 
Papa  wants  us  to  learn  to  ride.  He  says 
that  few  children  are  learning  to  ride  horse- 
back. I  believe  there  are  about  fifteen  chil- 
dren learning  to  ride  on  old  Ned. 

Lileth  and  Harry  Storms  were  here  not 
long  ago.  They  live  in  Chicago,  and  travel 
with  a  children's  concert  company  which 
gave  an  entertainment  in  our  church.  They 
have  been  here  so  often  that  Lileth  calls  our 
house  home  whenever  she  is  in  Paxton.  Old 
Ned  and  Frank  McLean's  pony  had  plenty 
to  do  while  the  children  were  here.  "We  rode 
turn  about  nearly  all  day.  The  pony  ran 
away  with  Lileth,  but  she  did  not  get  hurt. 

Papa  and  Wendell  were  down  town  in  the 
buggy  the  other  day  and  a  man  wanted 
Papa  to  fix  some  papers  for  him.  Papa  said 
to  the  man,  "Get  into  the  buggy  and  drive 
up  street. ' '  The  man  said :  "I  can 't  drive ; 
I  never  drove  a  horse  in  my  life."  Papa 
said:  "Get  in  and  Wendell  will  drive;  I 
don't  want  to  leave  him  alone."  The  man 
got  in  and  Wendell  turned  and  drove  Hi- 
dalgo up  street.  Wendell  is  a  good  driver 
and  rides  well  for  a  six-year-old.  We 
thought  it  was  funny  that  the  man  could 


172  HIDALGO 

not  drive  a  horse.  He  can  manage  a  boat, 
though,  for  he  has  been  a  sailor.  Papa 
wants  us  to  drive  and  ride  and  to  learn  to 
do  everything  that  we  can.  He  says  for  us 
to  keep  our  eyes  and  ears  open  and  to.  ask 
questions.  He  has  never  let  us  be  fooled 
about  Santa  Claus,  yet  we  always  had  lots 
of  fun  at  Christmas.  It  is  a  great  day  at 
our  house,  as  it  is  Ruth's  and  my  birthday. 
We  get  a  double  set  of  presents.  We  dress 
up  like  the  picture  of  Santa  Claus  and  de- 
liver the  presents  from  the  Christmas  tree. 
Children  like  to  make  believe,  and  we  enjoy 
it  just  as  well  as  if  we  believed  all  the  fairy 
stories  they  tell  about  Santa  Claus. 

Papa  always  answers  any  questions  we 
ask  him,  if  he  can.  He  usually  answers  our 
questions  by  asking  us  questions  and  mak- 
ing us  think  it  out  for  ourselves.  When  we 
were  three  our  four  years  old  he  told  us 
things  that  some  big  boys  and  girls  do  not 
know.  He  said  that  he  wanted  to  tell  us  the 
things  we  ought  to  know  and  would  learn 
by  and  by.  He  thinks  that  Papas  and 
Mamas  do  wrong  by  letting  other  people  or 
children  tell  little  folks  what  their  parents 
ought  to  have  told  them.  The  other  children 


Harry  and  Lileth. 


173 


HIDALGO  175 

cannot  tell  us  anything  that  we  do  not  know. 
So  what  we  hear  from  other  children  does 
not  make  any  difference,  because  we  know 
more  than  they  do,  and  if  we  do  not  we  ask 
Papa  about  it.  What  they  think  is  funny 
or  a  secret  is  not  a  secret  or  funny  to  us. 

We  were  at  Grandma's  not  long  ago  and 
Wendell  got  both  hands  caught  in  a  pulley. 
The  men  were  putting  the  second  crop  of 
clover  hay  into  the  barn  with  a  hay  fork. 
The  hay  fork  is  fastened  to  one  end  of  a 
long  rope  and  the  rope  is  carried  up  over 
a  pulley,  which  is  hung  in  the  top  of  the 
hay  loft.  Then  the  rope  is  run  down 
through  a  pulley  that  is  fastened  to  the  barn 
floor.  A  horse  is  hitched  to  this  end  of  the 
rope.  They  stick  the  hay  fork  into  the  hay 
that  is  on  the  wagon.  The  horse  pulls  on 
the  rope  and  up  goes  a  fork  load  of  hay  into 
the  hay  loft.  When  the  hay  gets  to  the  right 
place  the  man  on  the  wagon  pulls  a  little 
rope  that  is  fastened  to  the  hay  fork  and 
makes  the  fork  let  loose  of  the  hay. 

It  is  hard  pulling  for  the  horse,  and  when 
the  hay  drops  he  takes  several  quick  steps 
forward.  Wendell  said  he  was  helping  the 
horse  by  pulling  down  on  the  rope.  When 


176  HIDALGO 

the  hay  dropped  both  of  his  hands  were 
jerked  into  the  pulley.  The  rope  took  nearly 
all  the  flesh  off  the  inside  of  three  fingers  on 
one  hand  and  took  the  flesh  off  the  inside  of 
one  finger  and  a  nail  off  the  next  finger  on 
the  other  hand.  The  doctor  dressed  his 
hands  and  tied  up  all  his  fingers  and  one 
thumb.  One  night,  while  his  hands  were 
still  tied  up  in  the  cotton,  he  called, 
"Papa!"  Papa  said:  "Yes,  Wendell,  I 
am  coming  as  soon  as  I  can  turn  on  the 
light."  When  Papa  went  to  him  he  was 
sitting  in  the  middle  of  the  bed.  He  smiled 
and  said,  " I'm  mixed  in  bed. ' '  He  did  not 
know  where  the  pillows  were  and  he  could 
not  feel  to  find  them,  and  he  was  afraid  that 
he  would  fall  out  of  bed  if  he  moved.  His 
hands  have  healed  now,  but  some  of  his  fin- 
gers are  not  just  right  yet.  Papa  says  boys 
should  stay  clear  away  from  pulleys,  cog 
wheels  and  shafts  that  turn  over. 

One  day  last  week  Papa  had  business  out 
southwest  about  thirteen  miles.  He  told 
Ruth  that  she  could  go  along  and  to  invite 
some  of  her  girl  friends,  so  she  invited 
Flossy  and  Bessie  Beasley,  and  they  got  a 
picnic  supper  ready  and  hunted  up  their 


177 


HIDALGO  179 

bathing  suits.  About  this  time  Wendell  and 
I  began  to  feel  pretty  badly.  We  did  not 
want  to  be  left  at  home,  but  Kuth  said  it 
was  her  turn  to  go  with  Papa  and  that  he 
had  promised  her  it  was  to  be  a  girls '  hunt- 
ing party  and  that  we  could  not  go.  Papa 
got  her  to  agree  that  Mama,  Wendell  and  I 
might  go  as  far  as  Uncle  John 's  with  them. 
When  we  came  to  the  timber  Mama  held 
Hidalgo  and  we  went  squirrel  hunting.  We 
had  a  rifle  and  two  shotguns.  We  boys  were 
not  to  shoot.  When  we  started  into  the 
timber  Papa  said,  "Now,  everybody 
watch  for  squirrels."  Wendell  was  bare- 
. footed,  and  said:  "You  watch;  I  have 
got  to  watch  my  feet."  We  saw  only  one 
squirrel  and  did  not  shoot  at  this.  The 
girls  shot  the  rifle  several  times  at  squir- 
rels' nests,  so  that  they  thought  they  were 
having  fine  hunting  anyway,  I  guess. 
After  they  left  us  at  Uncle  John's  they 
drove  eight  miles  farther,  and  when  they 
were  coming  back  they  stopped  to  feed 
Hidalgo  and  eat  their  supper  at  the  end 
of  a  dredge  ditch  where  there  was  nice, 
clean  water  for  the  girls  to  bathe  in.  The 
girls  used  under-the-bridge  for  a  dressing- 


180  HIDALGO 

room  and  put  on  their  bathing  suits  while 
Papa  fed  Hidalgo.  They  bathed  and  had 
their  supper  and  then  came  for  us.  It  made 
us  late  getting  home,  but  it  was  a  nice,  warm 
evening. 

Papa  says  people  forget  things  because 
they  do  not  learn  them  right.  One  way  is 
to  learn  a  thing  so  that  you  can  say  it  but  not 
understand  it,  another  way  is  to  learn  a 
thing  so  that  you  can  understand  it  but  can- 
not tell  it,  but  the  best  way  is  to  learn  a  thing 
so  that  you  understand  it  and  can  tell  it. 
He  has  taught  us,  in  just  a  few  lessons,  how 
to  divide  a  section  of  land  and  to  number  the 
sections  in  a  township. 

To  teach  us  the  parts  of  a  section,  he  laid 
some  books  east  and  west  across  the  middle 
of  a  square  rug  that  is  in  our  hall.  Then 
he  had  us  stand  in  the  north  part,  and  asked 
which  half  we  were  in.  We  told  him  the 
north  half.  Then  we  found  the  south  half. 
After  that  we  laid  some  more  books  across 
the  middle  of  the  rug  north  and  south,  and 
we  found  the  east  half  and  west  half.  That 
divided  it  into  quarters.  He  asked  us  to 
find  the  quarter  to  the  north  and  west,  and 
we  found  it.  That  was  called  the  northwest 


HIDALGO  181 

quarter.  He  asked  us  to  step  into  the  south' 
west  quarter,  southeast  quarter  and  north- 
east quarter.  We  learned  that  there  are  640 
acres  in  a  section,  and  a  half-section,  of 
course,  is  320  acres,  a  quarter-section  is  160 
acres,  the  half  of  a  quarter-section  is  eighty 
acres  and  a  quarter  of  a  quarter-section  is 
forty  acres.  After  we  had  learned  the  quar- 
ters he  said:  "Now,  a  man  had  four  chil- 
dren and  he  owned  the  northwest  quarter  of 
a  section  of  land.  He  gave  John  the  north- 
west quarter  of  his  quarter, ' '  and  we  learned 
that  they  called  it  the  northwest  quarter  of 
the  northwest  quarter.  Then  the  man  gave 
his  daughter  Jennie  the  southwest  quarter 
of  the  northwest  quarter,  and  he  gave  James 
the  southeast  quarter  of  the  northwest  quar- 
ter, and  he  gave  M,innie  the  northeast  quar- 
ter of  the  northwest  quarter.  Papa  had  us 
step  into  the  different  forty-acre  pieces  as 
he  described  them,  and  it  was  only  a  little 
wrhile  until  we  could  find  any  quarter  of  a 
quarter  of  the  section,  and  now.  we  can  step 
from  place  to  place  on  the  rug  and  tell  what 
part  of  the  section  we  are  in. 

We  do  not  divide  the  rug  into  more  than 
four  parts,  for  that  mixes  us  up,  but  we  step 


1S2  HIDALGO 

into  the  corners  of  the  quarters.  Papa  tells 
us  to  "  March ! ' '  and  we  walk  around  on  the 
rug;  then  he  says  "Stop!"  and  asks  us 
where  we  are.  I  say,  perhaps,  "I'm  in  the 
northeast  quarter  of  the  southwest  quar- 
ter," and  Huth  says,  "I  am  in  the  north- 
west quarter  of  the  northwest  quarter, ' '  then 
we  march  again.  Papa  does  not  let  us  work 
on  anything  of  this  kind  for  more  than  fif- 
teen minutes  at  a  time,  hut  he  wants  our 
whole  attention  while  we  are  at  it. 

Then  he  laid  thirty-six  pieces  of  paper 
down  on  the  floor,  that  made  six  each  way, 
like  a  township,  for  a  township  has  thirty- 
six  sections  in  it.  We  learned  that  in  num- 
bering the  sections  in  a  township  they  begin 
at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  township  and 
number  west,  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six, 
to  the  west  side.  Seven  is  just  south  of  six, 
and  they  number  right  back  to  the  east, 
seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  eleven,  twelve,  then 
back  and  forth  till  they  come  to  thirty-six, 
which  is  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  town- 
ship. 

Thursday,  the  18th  day  of  October,  there 
was  a  big  rally  in  Paxton,  and  Wendell  and 
Papa  and  T  were  in  the  parade.  Walter 


Rally  Day  at  Paxton. 
183 


HIDALGO  185 

Benjamin  was  Wendell 's  partner.  Wendell 
rode  Ned  and  I  rode  Prank  McLean 's  pony. 
Carl  was  my  partner.  He  rode  his  pony. 
Papa  rode  Hidalgo  in  the  parade.  After 
the  parade  we  went  to  the  Court  House  Park 
to  hear  the  speaking.  Wendell  went  home 
about  the  first  thing.  I  stayed  a  little  while, 
but  I  did  not  get  any  sense  out  of  the  speak- 
ing, so  I  went  home.  The  pony  started  off 
pretty  fast  and  I  knew  that  it  was  wanting 
to  run,  so  I  pulled  and  jerked  on  the  reins. 
When  I  jerked  him  he  would  rear  up  and 
then  walk  about  two'  steps.  When  I  got 
to  Mr.  Day's  house  I  said  to  him:  "This 
isn't  a  bucking  broncho;  it's  a  running 
broncho,"  and  just  then  it  went  as  fast  as 
it  could  run  to  the  pasture  where  they  kept 
it.  I  didn't  fall  off,  though. 

I  suppose  you  will  want  to  hear  how  we 
are  getting  along  with  our  log  cabin.  We 
have  the  walls  nearly  done  and  Mr.  Morrow 
built  the  fireplace  yesterday.  We  had  a 
fire  in  the  fireplace  last  night.  Harold  Ste- 
vens, Earl  Canady  and  Cousin  Harry  were 
here.  When  we  got  settled  around  the 
bright  fire  we  said,  "Now  is  the  time  for 
stories,  Papa."  He  said  that  we  had  heard 


186  HIDALGO 

about  all  of  his  stories.  We  asked  him  what 
he  and  your  Papa  and  Uncle  Dave  did  when 
they  were  little.  He  said  that  they  did  a 
good  many  things  that  they  should  not  have 
done.  They  raced  the  horses,  on  horseback 
or  with  the  wagons  and  sleds  and  came  near 
breaking  their  necks  sometimes.  He  told 
us  how  Uncle  Dave  used  to  catch  him  and 
your  Papa  and  back  their  bare  backs  against 
the  cold  wall,  and  how  Aunt  Minnie  used  to 
change  the  dressers  and  beds  around,  and 
when  the  boys  would  go  upstairs  to  go  to 
bed  in  the  dark,  and  undress  and  make  a 
jump  onto  the  bed,  the  bed  would  be  some 
other  place  and  the  boys  would  be  on  the 
floor. 

One  time  they  had  a  man  to  work  for  them 
and  he  got  up  early. to  make  the  fire.  It  was 
pretty  dark  but  he  did  not  light  a  lamp. 
Papa  slipped  out  and  laid  his  hand  down 
heavy  on  the  man's  back.  The  man  said, 
"0,  my,  0,  come,  there  is  something  on 
my  back."  And  he  was  so  frightened  he 
stood  leaning  over  the  stove  till  Papa 
laughed. 

He  used  to  own  a  spotted  horse  that  had 
been  in  a  circus.  He  called  him  King.  King 


187 


The  Organ  in  Our  Church. 
189 


HIDALGO  191 

is  still  living  and  is  owned  by  a  man  who 
lives  about  ten  miles  from  here.  King  was 
an  awful  fighter  and  when  he  got  loose  in 
the  horse  tents  of  the  circus  he  raised  a  ter- 
rible row.  He  was  always  cross  with  other 
horses,  while  Papa  had  him,  though  he  was 
gentle  to  drive.  He  could  trot  or  pace  and 
when  he  came  to  the  main  street  he  would 
prance  just  as  he  had  done  when  he  was 
with  the  dircus  when  the  band  played.  He 
was  a  fine  rider  and  he  could  jump  over  a 
high  fence.  One  time  Papa  was  riding  him 
and  a  little  girl  said,  "Why;  you've  got  a 
painted  horse,  haven't  you?" 

One  time  a  man  that  lived  near  Uncle 
Dave's  had  a  young  team  of  horses  that  he 
was  breaking  to  drive.  Uncle  Dave  met  him 
on  the  road  when  he  had  them  hitched  to  a 
wagon.  He  asked  him  how  he  was  getting 
along  breaking  the  colts.  The  old  man  said, 
"If  I  raise  my  hand,  so;  huh;  away  they 
go,"  and  they  did.  They  were  running  as 
far  as  Uncle  Dave  could  see  them. 

He  told  us  about  the  dream  he  had  when 
he  was  a  little  boy.  In  the  morning  he  got 
up  and  he  had  had  a  dream.  He  said  to 
Aunt  Minnie,  ' 1 1  greamed,  I  greamed,  Min- 


192  HIDALGO 

nie,  what  was  it  I  greamed?  Oh,  yes,  I 
greamed  there  was  a  great  big  pig  after 
me." 

Mama  told  us  stories  of  how  she  and  her 
brothers  and  sisters  used  to  go  bob  sled  rid- 
ing and  got  upset  in  the  snow,  and  how  they 
coasted  down  hill,  and  went  horseback  rid- 
ing and  how  they  used  to  walk  along  the  top 
rail  of  the  rail  fences.  She  says  she  thinks 
it  is  fun  to  walk  rail  fences.  She  had  us  try 
it  last  summer  when  we  came  to  a  rail  fence 
in  the  timber.  I  couldn't  walk  more  than 
two  rails  till  I  had  to  jump  off.  The  rails 
won't  lie  still.  Mama  went  to  school  in  the 
country  when  she  was  little.  I  just  know 
they  had  more  fun  than  we  do  in  town.  She 
knows  more  games  than  we  do.  If  any  one 
knows  a  story  he  is  pretty  near  certain  to  re- 
member it  if  he  will  sit  before  a  bright  fire 
in  our  log  cabin. 

I  will  tell  you  of  our  trip  to  Chicago  and 
other  places  this  summer.  You  were  with 
us  when  we  visited  Lincoln  Park.  I  sup- 
pose that  you  go  up  there  quite  often.  We 
have  been  in  the  Park  five  or  six  times  and 
we  never  get  tired  of  it. 

It  is  most  alwavs  cool  in  the  Park  because 


HIDALGO  193 

of  the  trees  and  because  Lake  Michigan  is 
along  the  East  side  of  it.  Do  you  know  how 
many  acres  there  are  in  the  Park!  It  looks 
to  be  a  mile  or  two  long  and  over  half  a  mile 
wide.  It  must  take  a  great  deal  of  work  to 
keep  the  grounds  in  such  nice  condition  and 
to  take  care  of  the  flower  beds.  We  had  our 
first  ride  on  the  camels  when  you  were  with 
us,  although  we  had  seen  them  several  times. 
We  will  have  a  ride  on  the  elephant  some 
day.  He  was  not  working  when  we  were 
there.  There  is  enough  to  see  in  the  Park 
to  keep  a  person  busy  for  some  time.  We 
never  get  tired  looking  at  the  buffalo,  zebra, 
elk,  deer,  lions,  tigers  and  monkeys  and  at 
the  eagles  and  other  birds.  Once  when  we 
were  at  the  Park  we  rode  down  to  the  City 
on  a  little  steamer.  They  went  out  on  Lake 
Michigan  as  far  as  the  breakwater  and  took 
on  some  passengers.  The  men  had  been  fish- 
ing from  the  breakwater.  One  day  we  went 
from  Chicago  to  Evanston  on  the  electric 
car  and  saw  the  Ferris  wheel  which  is  now 
a  little  way  North  of  Lincoln  Park.  I  went 
up  in  the  Ferris  wheel  when  it  was  at  the 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago.  Going  up  in  the 
Ferris  wheel  is  about  all  I  can  remember 
about  the  World's  Fair. 


194  HIDALGO 

When  we  went  from  Chicago  to  Joliet, 
which  is  South  West  of  Chicago,  we  took 
a  boat  and  went  down  the  drainage  canal 
as  far  as  Lockport  and  then  rode  on  an  elec- 
tric car  from  Lockport  to  Joliet.  It  was  hot 
weather  when  we  made  that  trip  and  al- 
though there  were  many  wonderful  things 
to  look  at  there  were  plenty  of  things  that 
did  not  smell  sweet,  especially  in  the  Chi- 
cago river  near  the  stock  yards.  The  drain- 
age canal  is  a  big  ditch  that  was  made  to 
take  the  water  from  the  Chicago  river.  This 
water  used  to  flow  into  Lake  Michigan.  The 
canal  carries  it  South  West  into  the  Des- 
plaines  river.  They  did  this  so  that  they 
could  keep  the  bad  water,  sewerage  they 
call  it,  from  going  into  Lake  Michigan. 
They  commenced  at  the  Chicago  river  on  the 
West  side  of  Chicago  and  made  the  canal 
200  feet  wide  for  several  miles  till  they  came 
to  where  it  was  solid  rock,  then  they  made  it 
only  100  feet  wide.  The  sides  of  the  canal, 
where  it  is  solid  rock,  are  as  smooth  as  a 
wall.  They  used  saws  that  were  run  by  en- 
gines to  cut  the  rock  on  each  side  of  the 
ditch  and  broke  up  the  rock  in  the  center  by 
blasting  it  with  powder.  There  were  ele- 
vators and  cars  to  take  the  stone  out  of  the 


HIDALGO  195 

ditch.  There  is  a  lock  at  Lockport.  A  lock 
is  a  tight  gate  made  across  the  canal  which 
may  be  raised  or  lowered  so  that  the  water 
can  be  held  or  allowed  to  flow  out  as  it  is 
needed. 

We  visited  in  Joliet  for  a  day  or  two  and 
then  came  back  to  Chicago  on  the  Chicago 
and  Alton  Eailroad.  The  banks  of  the  drain- 
age canal  can  be  seen  from  the  railroad. 
They  look  lik£  mountains.  We  found  one 
place  that  beat  the  Chicago  river  for  bad 
odors  and  that  was  the  old  canal  at  Joliet. 
It  is  separated  from  the  drainage  canal  and 
it  is  so  nearly  level  that  they  can  hold  the 
water  in  it  as  long  as  they  please.  The 
water  had  been  kept  in  the  canal  until  it  was 
as  black  as  coal  and  it  smelled  worse  than 
any  water  I  ever  smelled.  If  I  lived  in  Joliet 
I  would  have  them  clean  the  canal  or  I  would 
leave  the  City,  unless  I  were  in  the  State's 
prison. 

When  we  went  to  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin, 
to  visit  Papa 's  relatives,  we  left  Chicago  on 
the  ' ;  Christopher  Columbus ' '  or  whale-back 
boat.  They  call  it  the  l '  whale-back ' '  because 
the  hull  looks  like  the  back  of  a  whale.  This 
is  the  boat  they  used  at  the  World's  Fair  to 


196  HIDALGO 

give  people  a  ride  on  Lake  Michigan.  It  is 
said  to  be  the  largest  excursion  boat  in  the 
world.  Papa  thought  that  there  were 
twenty-five  hundred  people  on  the  boat  that 
day.  The  price  of  a  round  trip  ticket  from 
Chicago  to  Milwaukee  is  one  dollar  if  you 
come  back  the  same  day,  or  one  dollar  and 
fifty  cents  if  you  stay  over  as  we  did.  We 
thought  that  it  was  the  finest  trip  for  the 
money  that  we  ever  took. 

Milwaukee  is  the  cleanest  and  prettiest 
city  that  we  were  ever  in.  While  we  were 
there  our  friends  took  us  to  the  parks  and 
aiound  over  the  city.  We  saw  about  forty 
deer  at  one  of  the  parks.  The  parks  are  all 
new,  but  they  have  fine  old  trees  in  them. 
It  is  up  hill  and  down  hill  in  the  parks  so 
the  ponds  and  lakes  were  easily  made. 

One  day  we  took  the  electric  car  and  went 
North  of  Milwaukee  to  White  Fish  Bay. 
That  is  a  pretty  place.  We  gathered  colored 
stones  and  played  in  the  white  sand  and 
waded  in  the  water.  The  waves  would  chase 
us  back  and  wet  us  if  we  did  not  get  back 
quick  enough.  I  came  near  getting  run  over 
by  a  street  car  while  we  were  in  Milwaukee. 
Wendell  and  I  were  racing  to  see  which 


I 


197 


199 


HIDALGO  201 

i 

could  get  to  the  house  first.  I  waited  for  a 
street  car  that  was  going  East  to  pass  and 
after  it  passed  started  to  cross  the  tracks  and 
the  men  on  the  car  called  to  me  to  stop.  I 
was  just  stepping  on  to  the  track  in  front  of 
a  car  going  West.  Papa  had  told  us  when 
we  got  off  a  car  to  stand  still  before  cross- 
ing the  track  until  our  car  got  clear  away  so 
that  we  could  see  if  there  was  a  car  coming 
from  the  other  direction.  He  had  told  us  to 
do  the  same  way  when  we  were  waiting  for 
a  car  to  pass.  I  do  not  think  I  shall  forget 
again. 

Our  friends  had  a  large,  fine  looking  pac- 

-  ing  horse  that  has  a  record  of  2 :22  and  he 

took  us  over  those  pavements  as  fast  as  we 

wanted  to  go.     That  horse  knows  about  ^s 

much  as  Hidalgo  does. 

We  went  back  to  Chicago  on  a  boat  called 
the  "Virginia."  It  was  not  so  large  as  the 
"Whaleback"  but  was  better  furnished.  A 
day  or  two  after  we  came  back  from  Mil- 
waukee we  took  the  boat  called  the  ' '  City  of 
Chicago"  and  crossed  the  lake  to  St.  Joe, 
Michigan.  From  there  we  rode  on  the  cars 
about  fifteen  miles  East  to  Paw  Paw  Lake. 
Then  we  rode  on  a  little  steamer  to  our  stop- 


202  HIDALGO 

ping  place.  We  boarded  at  "Lincoln's 
Cabin."  The  cabin  was  built  by  a  Mr.  Lin- 
coln and  it  was  made  from  slabs  from  the 
saw  mill  like  our  log  cabin.  We  had  nice 
weather  while  we  were  there  except  that  it 
was  very  warm.  We  went  bathing  and  we 
walked  through  the  woods  and  rode  on  the 
steamers  and  took  rides  in  the  row  boats. 

One  day  we  took  a  row  boat  and  rowed 
down  Paw  Paw  river.  The  Paw  Paw  is  a 
narrow,  deep,  river,  very  crooked  and  very 
pretty.  We  were  in  the  shade  of  the  trees 
most  of  the  time.  The  water  does  not  run 
from  the  river  into  Paw  PawT  Lake,  but  from 
Paw  Paw  Lake  into  Paw  Paw  river.  There 
are  no  creeks  or  rivers  running  into  Paw 
Paw  Lake  and  the  Lake  is  kept  fresh  and 
full  by  springs  of  water.  Paw  Paw  river 
runs  into  St.  Joe  river  and  St.  Joe  river  runs 
into  Lake  Michigan.  If  you  follow  the  banks 
around  Paw  Paw  lake  it  is  about  eighteen 
miles  and  there  are  houses  and  cottages  al- 
most all  the  way  around  the  lake. 

Another  time  we  went  across  the  lake  to 
the  Sherwood  Fruit  Farm.  That  is  about 
the  largest  fruit  farm  in  the  State  of  Michi- 
gan. They  have  four  hundred  acres  of  peach 


Paw  Paw  River 


203 


fc/D 

rs 


205 


HIDALGO  207 

orchards  and  a  great  many  acres  of  apple 
and  pear  trees.  They  set  out  the  fruit  that 
is  too  ripe  to  ship  and  tell  you  to  eat  all  you 
want.  The  peaches  and  pears  were  fine. 
We  bought  a  basket  of  peaches  and  a  basket 
of  pears.  I  guess  you  know  that  because 
you  helped  to  eat  them  when  we  got  back 
to  Chicago. 

We  came  back  to  Chicago  on  the  "City 
of  Milwaukee."  Wre  had  a  bad  time  of  it 
for  as  soon  as  the  boat  got  out  of  the  harbor 
it  began  to  rock  and  pitch.  It  was  the  day 
of  the  cyclone  at  Sheboygan,  Wisconsin, 
which  made  the  lake  very  rough.  The  cabin 
boys  brought  up  dozens  of  tin  buckets  and 
set  them  about  the  cabin.  Everybody 
laughed  but  about  half  of  us  quit  laughing 
pretty  soon  and  found  use  for  the  buckets. 
If  you  do  not  want  to  get  sick  when  the  lake 
is  rough,  get  outside  and  watch  the  water 
and  it  is  not  nearly  so  bad.  Mama  asked 
one  lady  where  she  felt  sick  and  she  said, 
"Oh,  all  over/'  and  she  looked  as  if  she  felt 
just  that  way.  I  wasn't  very  sick  but  I  felt 
so  dizzy  I  couldn  't  stand  up.  The  boat  was 
late  getting  into  Chicago  that  night. 

And  now  winter  has  come  again  and  we 


208  HIDALGO 

have  finished  our  log  cabin  and  when  I  tell 
you  something  more  about  the  cabin  and 
what  we  have  gathered  up  to  put  in  it,  I  am 
going  to  finish  my  letter.  Papa  got  pretty 
well  tired  out  before  he  finished  the  cabin 
but  he  will  not  say  that  he  is  sorry  that  he 
built  it,  because  we  all  like  it  so  much,  and 
we  have  had  such  good  luck  in  getting 
things  to  put  into  it.  We  bought  from  one 
man  four  buffalo  horns  and  two  Dutch 
ovens.  The  o'T°ns  are  like  skillets,  only  they 
have  legs  on  them  and  have  iron  covers. 
They  are  to  set  in  the  open  fire  instead  of 
on  a  stove.  We  also  bought  a  pair  of  old 
tongs  to  use  about  the  open  fire.  Then  we 
got  from  him  a  real  Indian  bow  and  arrow, 
an  old  sword,  a  cutlass,  a  gun  and  two  candle 
snuffers.  A  gentleman  is  letting  us  keep 
for  him  his  collection  of  old  things,  two 
swords,  two  guns,  a  wooden  clock  and  an  old 
table.  We  have  a  spinning  wheel,  a  reel  to 
wind  the  thread  on,  cards  for  carding  flax 
or  wool,  a  hackle,  to  break  flax  on,  a  shuttle 
that  they  used  in  weaving,  candle  molds  and 
candle  sticks  and  the  best  of  all,  an  old  rope 
bedstead.  It  is  made  of  cherry  wood,  in- 
stead of  slats  and  bed  springs  it  has  pegs 


f 
1 


209 


211 


HIDALGO  213 

set  into  the  side  and  end  pieces.  We  run 
the  rope  back  and  forth  across  the  bed,  hook- 
ing the  rope  over  the  pegs,  then  the  mattress 
rests  on  this  rope.  We  have  nearly  all  the 
tilings  we  need  to  set  up  housekeeping  in  the 
log  cabin  .except  old  dishes.  Outside  of  the 
cabin  we  have  a  porch  roof  and  under  it  we 
hung  two  ox  yokes,  a  side  saddle,  a  man's 
saddle,  a  scythe,  a  sickle  and  a  rake.  We 
want  to  get  an  old  fashioned  grain  cradle, 
that  was  used  to  cut  wheat  and  oats.  Out- 
side of  the  cabin,  by  the  side  of  the  chimney, 
we  have  the  tank  for  soft  water  that  is  used 
in  the  bath  room  and  all  over  the  house. 
Papa  fixed  a  windlass  on  the  tank  with  a 
rope  and  "The  Old  Oaken  Bucket  That 
Hung  in  the  Well. ' '  This^made  it  look  like 
a  well  at  the  end  of  the  cabin. 

We  have  had  the  fire  lighted  in  the  fire- 
place several  times  and  when  the  wood  burns 
and  crackles  and  makes  pretty  firelight  and 
we  crack  and  eat  hickory  nuts  and  eat  ap- 
ples '  and  Mama  and  Papa  tell  us  stories, 
then  we  are  about  as  happy  as  can  be.  We 
will  get  some  pictures  taken  of  the  log  cabin 
and  then  you  can  see  for  yourself  how  it 
looks. 


21 1  HIDALGO 

The  cabin  door  has  a  wooden  bar  on  the 
inside  which  has  an  iron  bolt  through  it  and 
through  the  door.  There  is  a  string  tied  to 
the  bar  and  we  can  run  the  string  through 
an  auger  hole  that  is  in  the  door.  When  the 
string  is  out  a  person  on  the  outside  of  the 
cabin  can  raise  the  bar  or  latch  up  out  of  its 
place  and  they  can  come  in,  but  unless  the 
latch  string  is  out  you  cannot  get  in.  Our 
latch  string  is  always  out  to  you  or  to  any 
one  wTho  wants  to  see  our  cabin  and  our  old 
curiosities. 

My  letter  is  finished.    Good  bye. 
Your  cousin, 

HOWARD  MCCRACKEN. 

P.  S.— Last  Sunday  at  about  two  o'clock 
we  were  eating  our  dinner.  Papa  had  just 
served  our  plates  and  we  heard  something 
fall  in  the  upstairs  hall.  Papa  went  to  see 
what  it  was.  He  came  running  down  stairs 
and  said,  "It  is  fire."  Mama  went  to  the 
telephone  and  told  Central  to  give  the  alarm. 
The  fire  whistle  blew,  and  when  it  blows  it 
excites  the  whole  town  because  they  know  it 
means  a  fire  and  because  it  is  the  worst 
whistle  you  ever  heard.  It  is  called  a  siren 


215 


HIDALGO  217 

whistle.  Our  neighbors  saw  the  smoke  and 
knew  of  the  fire  before  we  did.  By  the  time 
Papa  came  down  stairs  they  were  coming 
from  every  direction.  The  fire  had  started 
in  the  ceiling  of  the  second  story  of  the 
house  or  under  the  attic  floor.  We  have  not 
found  out  how  it  caught  fire,  some  think 
there  must  have  been  a  hole  in  the  chimney 
and  that  the  soot  in  the  kitchen  stove  pipe 
burnt  out.  Others  think  that  it  started  in 
the  wall  behind  the  cook  stove.  Papa  and 
the  neighbors  attached  our  hose  to  the  faucet 
in  the  basement  and  carried  the  other  end 
of  the  hose  to  the  attic.  The  attic  was  so 
full  of  smoke  that  they  could  not  get  in  to 
save  any  of  the  old  things.  Papa  turned  the 
water  on  to  the  fire  but  the  stream  of  water 
was  too  small  to  do  any  good.  When  the 
fire  had  spread  over  the  roof  he  gave  it  up 
and  came  down.  Mama  and  Grandma  had 
opened  our  two  sets  of  double  doors  at  the 
front  of  the  house.  Four  men  picked  up  the 
piano  and  walked  right  out  with  it.  Some 
more  men  picked  up  the  dining  table  and 
carried  it  out  with  all  the  dishes  and  our 
dinner  on  it.  Everybody  says  now  that  those 
big  doors  and  the  big  sliding  doors  inside 


21S  HIDALGO 

of  the  house  were  a  fine  thing  when  the 
house  got  on  fire.  They  had  about  all  the 
furniture  and  goods  out  when  the  fire  com- 
pany came.  The  firemen  had  been  told  that 
it  was  our  house  that  was  on  fire.  The  horses 
hitched  to  the  Ladder  wagon  and  Hose  carts 
came  on  the  run,  the  fireman  hanging  on  as 
best  they  could.  The  bells  on  the  wagon 
were  clanging  and  everybody  got  out  of  the 
way.  When  the  firemen  turned  on  the  water 
with  the  big  hose  they  soon  put  out  the  fire 
and  they  left  about  six  inches  of  water  in 
our  basement.  The  roof  and  attic  all  burned 
and  the  fire  got  dowrn  into  the  second  story 
in  four  rooms  and  the  hall.  It  also  burned 
one  wall  in  the  kitchen. 

There  was  a  large  crowd  at  the  fire  and 
they  were  sorry  to  see  our  new  house  burned, 
but  Papa  and  Mama  told  them  not  to  mind, 
that  we  could  build  another  house  and  they 
were  so  glad  that  no  one  got  hurt  or  burned. 
Grandpa  saw  me  rolling  on  the  grass  and 
crying  and  he  saw  men  running  so  he 
thought,  "Oh,  my,  a  child  has  been  hurt." 
He  said  he  was  very  glad  when  he  saw  it 
was  only  the  house  on  fire.  The  house  is 
badly  damaged  by  fire  and  water.  We  have 


219 


HIDALGO  221 

enough  insurance  to  build  it  up  again,  so 
,Papa  or  the  Insurance  Company  will  make 
it  as  good  as  ever.  It  will  be  about  six 
months  before  we  can  move  into  it  again  be- 
cause it  is  winter  now  and  it  will  take  a  long 
time  to  fix  -it.  We  have  rented  a  house 
across  the  street  from  our  house  and  we  are 
not  in  so  bad  a  fix  as  some  folks  are  when 
they  have  their  homes  burned. 

We  had  company  Friday  evening  before 
the  fire  and  about  fifty  persons  saw  our  log 
cabin  that  evening.  We  had  six  candles 
burning  and  the  fire  was  burning  in  the  fire- 
place. Everybody  seemed  pleased  with  the 
cabin  and  our  old  things.  We  are  glad  so 
many  saw  it  before  it  was  burned. 

We  feel  badly  about  losing  our  cabin  and 
the  things  we  had  in  it  and  we  are  sorry  that 
we  did  not  get  a  picture  of  the  cabin. 

Papa  says  that  he  cannot  afford  to  carry 
up  five  tons  of  stuff  another  time  to  build  a 
cabin  in  the  attic  so  he  has  begged  an  old  log 
cabin  of  Uncle  John  and  will  have  the  logs 
brought  in  this  winter,  when  the  snow  comes, 
and  have  a  cabin  built  in  the  back  yard. 
Then  we  will  have  a  real  log  cabin  instead 
of  one  that  looks  like  a  log  cabin.  We  can 


222  HIDALGO 

build  a  big  chimney  from  the  ground  on  the 
outside  of  the  cabin  and  we  can  have  vines 
growing  up  over  the  cabin.    We  will  gather 
up  old  things  again  to  put  in  it. 
Good  bye  again, 

Your  Cousin, 

HOWARD. 


PICTURESQUE  AMERICAN  BIOGRAPHIES 

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DEEDS  OF 


ETHAN  ALLEN 


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